for your advice and your thoughtful recommendations! VERY much appreciated. Mary

I had not thought of rankings influencing universities (duh), but I'm sure you're right, since college age people are a declining demographic and there are large administrations to support; it's business. The university that ds will be attending in the fall historically had a very high freshman attrition rate back in the day (I was one!) How far can they go towards dumbing down an engineering education just to secure business? That's really disturbing. I'm hoping that the top universities are quite so pressured. Mary

My experience is old. I did this some 6 or 7 years ago with my first dc. The big difference I saw between NEM and other pre-algebra and some algebra 1 programs was that, in the early chapters, NEM introduced very complicated combining of terms immediately, whereas other programs proceeded much more gradually through different steps. And I will say that every prealgebra course we looked at was way too simplistic after having completed SM 6. Ds, then in 7th, did struggle with NEM; and I got frustrated and ditched it about midyear for Foerster's Algebra 1. I don't regret that decision. I feel that proofs, which NEM does not address, represent an important aspect of logical thinking. However, no curriculum beats NEM for maximum difficulty in a word problem expressed in a minimum number of words! I've gotten OT from your original concerns. My next dc is finishing SM 6B this year and we will switch to a "traditional" track for next year mainly because we are more comfortable with that. Mary

Singapore! We've done it twice through now, and I understand math so much better than I did before we began homeschooling. I like RS too. Using RS and taking a break from from Singapore for k-1 for this last dc. For olders, Jacobs and Foersters. I think the Foerster's calculus was the best rigorous college prep calc we could have done. Math above algebra 1 has been dh's department, but I think this time around, as one dd goes into alg 1 next fall, I'm going to work along too. Mary

Grade inflation is rampant in high schools in my state due at least in part to pressure not to have deny kids the Hope Scholarship. Unfortunately, I suspect there is also some grade inflation in the colleges because some are pressured not to have so many students lose the scholarship. I was totally unimpressed with a few of the courses ds has taken at a small local university. However, I have to say that his 2nd semester of physics is more like I remember it: highest test grade a 60 or 70 and lots of 40's and 50's! Thanks for posting that link, Gwen. Mary

OK. I'm not clear where these fall in the sequence. It's a compilation containing Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon. I think we'll put this on hold, until I have a chance to go through it! Thanks for your help, Kate. Mary

Has anyone read this? I read it a long time ago, but I can't remember much of anything about it. Dd, 12, loves dragons and wants to read it. Any cautions or inappropriate content? thanks. Mary

I recently bought OPG, and it's going really well for us. I had been using Phonics Pathways, which worked great for my older dd. But with this dd, it just wasn't working. We (I) needed a little more structure. Mary

I think LP is very good for middle-schoolers. We were using LFC, but I decided to ditch it half way through B, because so many topics were addressed and then never seen again. I know they have had a revision since we used it so maybe that has changed. Anyway, we began part-way through 4th with LP1 and at first we progressed rapidly but then slowed. Dd will be finished with a little over half of LP2 when we finish 6th in June. LP builds on previous concepts learned as it progresses, and the later translations often require the student to get a bit beyond the literal Latin to make a good English translation. Laura Corin, formerly Laura in China, and Jenny in Atl (I think that changed as well) have a lot experience with LP and gave a lot of good advice! HTH. Mary

Thanks for posting! That is really helpful. Mary

:lurk5: Look forward to replies. I'm sure the basics of intro, body, and conlcusion still hold. I always viewed the 5 paragraph essay as one of the "fool proof" methods for addressing many writing assignments. It gets students successfully through the writing portion of the SAT and the regents exam (may be particular to GA.) It got me through the regents exam! No idea what we should emphasize instead! Mary

First, congratulations! And I'm so sorry you don't have the support you should have. But just relax. I agree with all these posters who say your dd is so far ahead. Time is really on your side. When I had my last, all I did for quite some time is just read aloud at different times while I was nursing! They are fine. Mary

That is inspiring! Wow! Mary

Thank you for your reassurances, and I'm trying to feel reassured! At least I'm going to have to be resigned to it, because I can't change it. I'll give everyone the benefit of the doubt! Mary

I confess this type of arrangement is totally new to me, and it really blows my mind! The school ds will be attending is GA Tech, and probably the geographical location has something to do with the fact that it hasn't gone "gender neutral" or unisex bathrooms yet! Mary

I tried to do something very similar to what you want to do. But what happened was I ended up arranging TOG around SOTW because it drives me a little crazy to skip around in my spine book! I used TOG as a book list and discussion tool. We will be finishing SOTW 4 this year. I have TOG Y1 for next year, but I plan to use TWTM methods for outlining and summaries. I don't follow TOG's ideas for note taking and graphic organizers. Thanks for sharing your scheduling ideas. Mary

Sigh. That's what I was afraid of. This school doesn't have any visitation rules either to speak of. Obviously, I can't do anything about it, so I guess I'll have to live with it! 25 years makes a big difference! Now I feel really old! Mary

Ds has been living at home while going to a small university. He is transferring into a larger one and wants to live on campus. The university is still within commuting range, but the morning traffic would be horrible so I say if he can pay it's OK. That was before we started actually looking at the dorms. Now, at this school everything is co-ed. The only single gender dorms are female only. They are not coed by floor or section. They are coed by suite. It was not this way when I attended this school (briefly). Am I overreacting? Are most universities, the public ones anyway, like this? I really don't like this. For incoming freshman there are several single gender dorms for each gender. Ds can't live in one of these since he is a transfer student, although he will have just turned 19 when he starts in the fall. Mary

To really learn how to program, you can download the Python programming language for free, and there are good introductory books for it. After learning with Python, it is a lot easier to transition transition to C++ or C#. This is what my son did when he was in high school. He taught himself. I was a computer programmer years ago before object oriented everything and I get lost! Also, your son can look into modding computer games like Civilization that are made so users can write their own code to create levels and scenarios. Ds had a lot of fun doing that, and their modding community is very supportive. I think Civilization uses Python. When he was a senior in high school, ds studied some books on math and physics for game programming as well as books on game design theory. I counted all that stuff as electives on his transcript. Since ds has been in college he has had far less time for his hobby! But he is finally transferring into the college of his choice, Georgia Tech, to study computer science. Good luck! Mary

Tracy, thanks for the link. I'll give her the test at the end of the year. Michelle, I read some of your posts when I was searching. I am going to our local homeschool convention in early May where I'll look it over, but I don't do my best thinking in that environment. Please post your thoughts after you've looked it over! Thanks for your input. Mary

I've used R&S English since 3rd, and I can't believe I'm contemplating switching to CLE for 7th since I own the whole R&S English series! I am thinking of switching because it looks like CLE would be a lot easier to use independently than R&S while covering comparable topics. That would better suit how dd likes to work. In 7th and 8th the R&S lessons become, in my opinion, a lot more "cluttered" looking. We currently do most R&S lessons orally just assigning diagramming and composition for written work. I've been searching the board and poring over samples at the CLE web site. Has anyone compared these curricula side by side for 7th and/or 8th? Just from looking at the sample pages only, it looks as if CLE 7 doesn't cover any grammar that is not covered in R&S 6 (what we're using now.) Would we start with 8th? I read on the board that there are diagnostic tests, but I can't find them. Are they on the website? Will I need to just purchase a level and comb through it? Is the grass really greener on the CLE side of the fence? This is difficult for me, because I am a rehabbing curriculum hopper! Thanks for any help. Mary

Phonics Pathways plus some ETC. Lots of readers. :001_smile:

I vote yes at that level just because I didn't want to make up my own sentences for the spelling test! Mary

I can't directly compare Apologia with BJUP 7th or 8th grade texts. However, I think it's safe to say that the Aplogia physics requires higher level math that the BJUP Physical Science since it is targeted to 9th graders (I think!) Ds was accelerated in math and did Apologia Physics in 9th. You do need algebra 2 to do it. And if I remember right, there is a brief portion that required some trig, but it wasn't much and dh just gave ds a couple of short lessons so he could do those sections. I was really interested to read your comparison of BJUP Life Science to Apologia biology. I've been trying to decide between those to for dd next year in 7th. Thanks! Mary

Hi! I've been through Singapore with 2 dc, and yes it can be used fairly independently. My dd, since sometime around level 3-4 looked through the textbook lesson and attempted the problems herself. She comes to me if she doesn't understand something. The instruction is simple and clear. I'm not sure what level your dc would be starting in, but you may want to get familiar with how Singapore approaches word problems or you could find yourself getting lost in 5 an 6. I was my first time through b/c I had pretty much turned math over to ds. I'm using RS A with my K'er. I'm planning to continue through B, but after that I'll switch to Singapore. Oh, the differences between the additions. From what I have read in catalog descriptions and on the SM website, the Standards edition contains everything that the US editions contain plus some extra topics like negative numbers and probability in order to conform to California state standards. HTH! Mary