Hazel - did you look through the pinned Chem thread? I separated out the programs for Reg Chem, Honours Chem, and AP Chem into separate posts at the beginning of the thread to make it easier to find things.

I saw this and liked it. Everyone's probably already seen it floating around the Internet but I'll share anyway. :)

:iagree: I was going to come back and suggest Mr. Q. If you go to his website, you can take a look at the curriculum to make sure your dd likes it. It's very goofy but the science is pretty solid. Here's a link to the Advanced Chem: http://www.eequalsmcq.com/CSAdvChemChapterDwnld.htm You can try out the first chapter for free. Just to clarify - Mr. Q calls it Advanced Chem but it's actually a Reg Chem course.

If you think that a quick lesson on orbital filling wouldn't overwhelm her, I'd go ahead and do it so that she can see the "why" behind how valence shells fill the way they do. Even if the course doesn't cover it formally later on, it's not going to hurt her if it helps her to understand valence electrons and how they behave.

When you say very little math, how much math is allowable? Is your dd currently taking Alg 1?

I hear ya. Our regular supplier still has some in his hay barn and he's willing to put some aside for us to pick up later. We're pretty good customers and I'm very thankful he's willing to do this for us. I banked on 210 "hay" days this winter with total hay weight based on 2% of the horses' total combined weight plus extra for any days below -10C. If we get an "early" spring (grass growing by the end of April), we'll be fine. If it's a spring like this last one where we begin to wonder if anything will actually be green before June 1, it could be dicey. We've got a few areas of standing hay that's in fenced off areas of the pasture. Not the greatest from a nutritional standpoint but I could let them in those areas in late spring in a pinch. It just keeps on being cold. Today's high is -22C and there's currently a -40C windchill. It's supposed to start to warm up by next week (by "warm up", I mean daily highs reaching -10C). I'll be glad. Hubby will be glad. The animals will be glad. My exclusively outdoor Great Pyrs don't even like it when it's this cold. Their favourite temps are around -10 to -15C. The cold really does start to tire everyone out after a while. Sigh.

We have fairly good snow cover as well, Margaret, and I'm thankful. I do NOT want to deal with a frozen septic system. The propane truck is probably going to do its rounds in the next week or so. I don't even want to think of what our propane costs will be this winter if this keeps up... Bleh.

That is true, fraidycat - bitterly cold does indeed equal no snow. :) Although if it gets just a bit colder, then I can go outside and do the throw-water-into-the-air-and-have-it-instantly-turn-into-snow thing. It did warm up some this afternoon. It's now -18C with a -23C windchill.

I think we survive it because we're either insane or we were born here and we're just used to it. :) I'm not stressing too much - I'm pretty sure we have enough hay. There's always that nagging feeling, though, that we'll run out if Ole Man Winter decides to stick around until April (which happens fairly often) and we have to feed extra hay over an extended period because of the cold. My horses are pretty chunky right now, though, so they've got some reserves to live off of if need be. ;) I hear you about going to school in these temps! I walked to and from university when I was in Winnipeg. I lived off campus and it was about a 45 minute walk one way down Pembina Hwy. Those windchills were crazy. My husband just says it builds character, Shukriyya. :)

This is the first time I've ever tried posting a poll. Hope it works! Was just thinking about white Christmases - and Bing Crosby because that's who I hear when I think of the song. :D I've never not experienced a white Christmas day. As I said in my other post, our area is (historically) guaranteed a white Christmas day. I grew up here, went to university in Winnipeg (98% guaranteed), and then moved back here after I finished my degrees. I've traveled but not during the holiday season. So what does everyone's holiday season look like in terms of the white stuff?

If it were - say - a month and a half from now, then I'd expect it. I'd actually expect colder. But for December 8, it's just not right. As my so eloquent friend stated this morning on FB, "Crap on a cracker, it's cold!" :D It's the cold - it gets to one's brain. ;) On the bright side, we know we'll have a white Christmas. Environment Canada has a chart of 39 centres in Canada and has calculated the probability of a white Christmas for each of them based on 57 years of weather data. The only places with a 100% record are us (well, the closest centre to us), Iqaluit, Whitehorse, and Yellowknife. Those other 3 are in Nunavut, Yukon, and Northwest Territories respectively. Anyone wishing for a guaranteed white Christmas vacation destination, here we are! :D

Temp at 10am: -30C with a windchill of -36C. Even for where I live, that's just waaaaaaaaaaaaay too cold for December 8. If this keeps up, I'm worried that I don't have enough hay for the winter. :(

I put together a thread awhile back with all the high school biology options I could find/think of: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/468303-homeschool-high-school-biology/ I included lots of links to everything and I split up the list into reg bio choices, honours bio choices, and AP Bio choices. Maybe something listed there?

Rockets. Blech. :) Be careful taking Kinder Surprise eggs back into the States. I was once interrogated by a US customs officer as to whether or not the birthday gift bag we were bringing to a friend's birthday party contained Kinder eggs as presents. If it did, she was going to have to confiscate them. Luckily, there were no Kinder eggs in the gift bag. We were safe. Don't admit to importing Kinder eggs, people!!! :D

From the First Nations people - bannock. And wild rice in this area. And Canadian Smarties. Not those horrid, powdery things called Smarties in the US. Real Smarties. :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties

Hugs and positive thoughts. :grouphug:

This post by DianeW88 is the one that came to mind when I read the OP's first post: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/436444-when-is-behind-really-behind/?p=4443397 Loved it.

Congratulations! I just started teaching at the local community college this past September. :) I started with just one class but they've since asked if I would do a second with the possibility of a third after Christmas. It's meant a bit of an adjustment to our homeschooling schedule but it seems to be working out so far. Because I was used to teaching senior classes in high school, it's been the distance/technology part that's been a steep learning curve for me - not so much the teaching aspect. For my first class, all of my students are in different communities from one another as well as from me. I teach in a room by myself and talk to a computer. :) My second class will be old-school - all my students are local. Woo hoo! My potential third class will be a mix. The distance thing was a HUGE change for me. I find that teaching in front of a "live" class vs. by distance are two completely different beasts. I don't know of any forums. I found this one: http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/forumdisplay.php?f=122 just by Googling but I have no idea if it's any good. It doesn't look terribly busy. Best of luck!

That is odd. I've joined the AP Chem forum and the AP Music Theory forum and I've not had an approved syllabus for either one.

I would agree with the previous posters - join the AP Chem teacher's forum and compare the labs you have against the ChemAdvantage ones. :) In previous years, some colleges and universities wanted to see the student's lab notebook before they would give the student college credit for AP Chem (assuming the student received the exam score required by that institution for credit). I don't know if that's still true after the course revamp or not. Just thought I'd mention it as something to check into. If a college or university is going to want to look at a student's lab notebook in order to grant credit, I can almost guarantee the institution will be expecting the student to have completed labs that are a LOT more rigorous than the standard cookbook-chemistry, fill-in-the-blank labs that make up the lab portions of so many chemistry courses. Just my thoughts. :) ETA: I was looking on the Thinkwell website to see if they stated anywhere that they've made adjustments to their AP Chem course to align it with the new standards and I don't see anything. That doesn't mean they haven't but it might be worth a quick email to them to make sure they've made any necessary changes or adjustments. :)

:D Thanks, Regentrude! That's the diagram I came up with about 5 minutes after I posted. I gave myself a good smack on the forehead when I realized it. :)

Hold on... Now I'm feeling uber foolish. :D I think I just figured it out. Carry on. :)

I'm feeling foolish for even asking but I'm wondering if I can tap the math wisdom here at the Hive. :) I'm tutoring a girl who's doing some remedial math at the local community college. We were going over her test yesterday and came across a question that I can't seem to wrap my brain around. Here it is: If line DE // line BC and angle ADE = 18o and angle DAE = 90o, then find: a. angle BDE b. angle ABC c. angle AED d. angle CED The answers her teacher gave are: a. 162o b. 18o c. 72o d. 108o There was no diagram given on the copy of the test the girl had to look over so I was trying to reconstruct the diagram from just the info given above. No matter what I do, I can't seem to come up with a diagram where all the answers given for those angles are true and line DE is parallel to line BC. I can come up with a diagram where all the angles match but line DE and BC are NOT parallel. The girl seems to think there was an accompanying diagram but can't remember what it looked like. Even if there were a diagram, I can't figure out how it would match the written description. The student has said that, in past, her teacher has made mistakes and her diagrams don't necessarily match up with a written description of the problem so that students will come up with different answers depending on whether they used the written description or the diagram to solve the problem. When asked about it, the teacher will blow off the question and tell the students that, since a diagram was there, they should have used the diagram. I know, I know - don't get me started on the teaching that goes on in some of the local classes. So assuming the diagram should match the written description, is there any possible diagram that could match the criteria the teacher has given and still give those answers for the angles? Geometry is not my strength - I have weak spatial reasoning skills. 3D molecular geometry in advanced chem classes at uni always gave me a headache. :)

I've emailed the forms to all who've PMed me. If you haven't received an email with the forms, just let me know. :)

Well... shoot. :) If anyone would like a copy of the blank form, the filled-in one, or both just shoot me a PM with your email address and I'll email them out.