We started using Homeschool Planet last fall and I gave up on it in March. In theory it had what we needed - a calendar, and the ability to create and track completed assignments under a course heading. A big draw was that I could purchase and load onto our calendar the assignments for a couple homeschool curriculum items we use. I ended up abandoning it because carrying over or moving assignments was frustrating and glitchy. It wasn't easy to deal with assignments that were something like "This week, get pages 10 - 20 done." I had to manually touch it every day to make sure it stayed on the calendar. Now I just have a Word document that I update weekly with each child's assignments and a weekly calendar I made in Excel for each child that shows any time specific commitments. My kids like it better and it takes me 1/10th of the time.

Same here, no benefit of the doubt on the next suggestion no matter how often someone starts off reluctant and then drastically changes their mind. 🙂

I'm about to crack open Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts by the awesome poker player Annie Duke. In homeschool I'm always wondering if I'm making the right choices with time/money. I'm not looking to make everything optimal, just to feel like I'm making decisions that will "win" overall. I'm curious how her insights to decision making as a poker player will apply....

I've always liked the "inspire, not require" type philosophy in theory but I've had similar experiences with my kids so often that I think sometimes a bit of requiring is the way to inspire 🙂 Love that he's enjoying the book!

MIL called yesterday. FIL had bad reaction after 2nd shot - would have been considered a Grade 3 reaction in a clinical trial. Luckily no hospitalization needed. Then FIL downplayed it all on his social media. MIL was fine.

We have a complaint department that I refer all complaints to - the closest trash bin 😀 Not sure if that would be appropriate an ASD kid. Hope you find something helpful soon.

thank you @kirstenhill and @enigma6

I'm sorry that I wasn't more clear. I wasn't asking for deep programs. I thought I had missed some information about programs they consider "deep" and was trying to understand what they were. About angst: Answers aren't compulsory; life is not a proof.

I finally am catching up on reading here and am glad for all the interesting and meandering posts. It doesn't sound like I've been missing out on any super secret awesome programs that have popped up that I didn't know about :-).

My kids loved Song School Latin around 3rd grade. It didn't require a lot of writing and the songs were fun and memorable. We did both levels at a rapid clip as the primary audience is a bit younger. A friend had recommended it since I was looking for something fun not necessarily academic/rigorous. BUT! I think we got more from it than we would have gotten from the other beginning Latin I've seen . I'll try to explain why I would recommend something geared toward younger kids for a gifted/advanced kid: We were doing MCT grammar at the time and as they learned Latin words I'd sometimes use the Latin word to replace a word in normal conversation. They started doing it too and we made lots of connections about grammar (using what they were learning in MCT), and Latin, and language, etc. that way. I think this approach could work really well for a dyslexic child. It takes out a lot of reading/writing and allows them to have fun and making lots of really cool connections (that a gifted kid would have fun doing) with roots to English words and the Latin sayings spark a lot of connections in the following years. Also, I was in a better position to pick a more formal type Latin study after this because I could pick something that better fit with their style of learning. At some point, we did the Classical Academic Press "Greek Code Cracker" book to learn the Greek letters, sounds, and how to write them. That was fun and a great experience too that has had lasting connections even though I don't think either of my kids will have the time/interest to study Greek further.

Hi, I don't have an autistic child but I saw an announcement about this today and wanted to put it out there for anyone who might be interested or know someone who is interested. This is a seminar from the International Chess Federation (US has its own federation) about how chess can help kids with autism. The testimonial quotes really touched me and I thought that there might be parents or educators here on this board that might have an interest. Looks like the deadline to register is 3/22 and the seminar is 3/29. https://fide.com/news/969

No, I don't. I am attempting to clarify what the Accelerated Learner Board thinks is deeper. I'm genuinely curious.

I'm looking for really good physics / physical science videos - well presented, engaging, accurate. Presentation of concepts and/or related investigations/experiments. What have you / your kids loved? I can look for and screen things per topic but sometimes that eats up a lot of time. We've been working through the Periodic Table of Elements with the University of Nottingham videos (https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/periodicnottingham/elements.aspx) and it's been such a good experience that I'd like to find another series to work through if there is anything out there....

Hi, My twins are currently both in Elements of Mathematics course 7 "The Decimals". Because they do it independently I cannot comment a lot about the actual content. I've been satisfied that the topics listed in their course description are interesting and useful and that I've heard other kids say good things about what they learned. I will offer my thoughts and some of the kids thoughts about the program otherwise. Both started last year when IMACS started offering free classes due to COVID. They were 11 at the time and I believe IMACS does consider that to be on the younger side (though I know that some younger and PG young kids take the courses successfully). Both had already completed most of AOPS Pre-Algebra before starting as well. DS says AOPS is more challenging than EMF, DD says EMF is more challenging than AOPS. 🙂 Both say that it has given them new understandings and they want to continue doing both. Both like working independently at their own speed (it's looked at as a fun bonus activity even though it is challenging). They've each had areas they've had to really slow down and take extra time, and they've been different sections. I have been pleasantly surprised at how interested they are to do the reading and to really dig in and figure out what they're not understanding when they get a problem wrong the first time. There are periods that they sort of take a small break from doing it and other times that they are wanting to spend a lot of time moving through. There is a pacing guide on their website that reflects what a public school in Florida uses to offer the program in a school year, but I think in a homeschool environment the pacing guide, if used to schedule work, could be a hinderance to getting the most out of the program. DD especially likes how a lot of problems have a theme and that they build in difficulty. She does get a bit stressed about the grades though because she says sometimes missing one thing can give her a low score. She has always gotten an A or a B overall, so I'm not sure why it stresses her (could be competition with brother). IMACS does recommend waiting and coming back to the course if a child scores lower than 75% (I think. I know there is some threshold). We don't otherwise use grades in homeschool so this has been a good intro to wanting a good grade and working carefully to try to achieve it. We do have some trouble with the interface from time to time and there have been times DD gets frustrated and stops working for the day due to it. It hasn't been a deal breaker overall. DS has used the help/question feature and found it helpful. I would recommend trying the courses to any kid that likes math/logic/games/problem solving and feels like giving it a shot after taking their screening test. We're considering computer science with IMACS via enrichment or classes and talked to a representative the other day. We've only had pleasant and helpful interactions with the company and don't mind answering any questions.

Long time sporadic reader here, but created an account with the intention of giving a review of our experience with Elements of Mathematics on that thread. This is a spin-off of that thread. Somewhere in that thread math programs that are "deeper" than AOPS are alluded to. What are the programs or textbooks that would be considered deeper than AOPS? (I tried to search for old threads on the subject but didn't find anything useful.)