I've done this and it "can" give you an overall idea of what she needs to work on BUT these math currics all have different scopes and sequences meaning one will teach a concept before or after another. I have tried too many math currics and really Saxon is the easiest to use. The fact that it basically starts over at the beginning of almost every math book practically guarantees that a child will learn as long as you DO NOT skip any problems and DO NOT skip the mental math! Part of the mental math before each lesson is 50 to 100 basic fact problems, like 5 x 9. I have my kids do these orally. You could do the one the lesson tells you to do and the multiplication one or whatever she needs more work on. Takes like 5 minutes. If I were you I'd give her the Saxon placement test and if she does NOT place higher than Saxon 3 I'd put her in Saxon 54 and tell her it's a 5th grade book. Which it is because it CAN be. Then whatever she needed extra work on, I'd do that. You can pickj up an older edition of Saxon 54 for very cheap on Amazon. I am not a fan of TT because there's not enough drill, IMO. And I hate Singapore. lol It's way too complicated to me. I'm going to use some Math Mammoth because I don't like Saxon k through 3. All those meetings...shudder... Saxon Intermediate 3 is way different and really, too advanced compared to the older Saxon 3. Again, IMO!

I've never even looked at VP Omnibus till this am but it looks interesting. BUT...I have TOG year 1. What are the differences, if any besides the fact that TOG can be used for Kish-12 grades?

These look interesting. Reminds me of Rightstart. At least grade 2 that I looked at.

They also have some Barrons stiff. Like Painless Algebra, SAT prep, etc.

Have you looked at this? http://www.currclick.com/browse.php?manufacturers_id=634 It's called A+ Tutorsoft, in case the link doesn't work.

I don't like MM but I do have some of it and decided to just print some of what I want to use, teach it my own way (it's just for a 7yo and 8yo) and forget it. Have you looked at Currclick? They have a million math ebooks. Maybe something will appeal to you?

Maybe it's just me but it is almost 2014, you'd think companies would already realize people want samples.

That's annoying. If I can't just see it without having to go through all that, forget it. What's with companies that do that?

I can't seem to find any samples of the guides. Do they exist?

I really think "they" did something to them to make them fall apart, break, not work, etc like they used to. We'd go through way too many, the leads would break if you breathed on them. I even used them and they'd break and I'd sharpen and they would never sharpen evenly no matter what. I used several different types of sharpeners and it didn't matter. I finally quit using pencils a few months ago.

Would it need a new thread for a fresh start? +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Yes.

Actually she would have learned quite a bit from that. My dh is an airplane mechanic. He attended school for 2 years, got his certificate, but his actual knowledge comes from fixing the planes, not from the books. IMO, if this girl really wanted a STEM career she would do anything and everything she had to. Not using a math curric in middle school wouldn't stop her.

I think it depends on the kid. Some kids are just harder children to PARENT. I had some relatively easy girls to homeschool then we adopted 3 boys that are very close in age and VERY Boyish and suddenly everything was harder, including homeschooling. Then we got their younger sister and things got more chaotic. It's been 7 years since we did that and some years have been more difficult than others. I never had any doubts that homeschooling was the perfect and ONLY thing to do till about 2 years ago. I struggled and looked at bus schedules and private school tuition and got over myself. lol So the answer is yes and no. lol

a QUIET 2 year old? What is this blasphemy????

Her intent is pretty clear to me. Academics may not ALWAYS be your number 1 priority and that's actually ok! I'm an unschooler at heart and I firmly believe learning takes place ALL the time. For example my 7 yo asked what the yellow reflectors in the road are for. Did I need a curric for that? No. Was that in a lesson plan? No. My 8 yo asked my dad if he was ever in a war and had a conversation about how he got drafted but wasn't actually in any wars. Again, no lesson plans. This same 8 yo asked me the other day if a tornado could destroy a metal building. No curric, no lesson plans, no worksheets, etc. This stuff happens with kids ALL the time, even during times of your life when everything is chaotic, beyond stressful, and youre barely hanging on by a thread. I don't recall much about when we took 8 months off but my kids made friends that they still have even though we've moved to 2 different states since then. Taking a year off from academics does not mean that the kids didn't learn anything for a whole year. That's not even possible to learn NOTHING for a whole year. And it's NOT illegal.

I've learned way more since I started homeschooling than I ever did in school. But the most recent thing is that home mail delivery started during the Civil War and that the last Civil War vet died in the 1950's.

I guess some are assuming that not having academics as the top priority in their life somehow means they are neglecting their children. The 8 months I did that 2 of my kids took horse back riding lessons, while my youngest played in the dirt. Our homeschool group had an International Night where families learned about and shared info about different countries and my girls chose the country their daddy came from originally. We spent a lot of time at the library. They played with their friends. But academics was NOT my top priority. Nobody suffered for it. There is a HUGE difference in NEGLECTING your children and not having the times tables being memorized. HUGE. Unless you are in coma it is completely impossible to not learn something every day. It may not come from a workbook. It may not be in a lesson plan. It may not be what "they" say you should know according to your grade, but isn't that one main reason most of us homeschool?

If this helps any better an 18 yo ps student my 18 yo dd knows thought Hawaii and Alaska were next to each other because they are on the maps.

Out of curiosity what law are you speaking of?

Back in 2002 my dh got laid off. We were living in a state with family and he got sent even further away. I had 3 kids at the time and a house I needed to get ready to sell, maintain, and be willing to show with 5 minutes notice because we wanted to sell asap. Then he got laid off again and went to another state. The 3rd lay off had him changing companies and we wound up moving to a state we had no intentions of moving to. At the time my kids were 11, 9, and 5. I could not handle academics, the house, the emotional stuff of continuous lay offs, the we-are-moving-to-Minnesota-no-it'sMichigan-no-I-could-go-t-Alaska-never-mind-we-are-going-to-florida, the pets, the keeping the house spotless, the packing, etc. so my kids got about 8 months with NO academics. 2 have graduated. One has written a book. 1 is almost done with cosmetology school, and one is better than my math-minded mechanically-minded dh, despite not even learning to read till she was...gasp!...9! Yea, don't judge till you've BTDT. :-)

At Lulu, click on the word "preview" underneath the picture of the book. It opens up with a larger picture of the cover. Look at the top right, there's a number 1 in the box....click on the arrow to the right of it to advance through the sample pages. I only looked at level 3, but there are over 40 pages of samples for that level. Amazon also has some samples. **************************************************************************************************** Thanks!!!!

Ya know, I actually would start at Apples because believe it or not, she WILL learn things she didn't know. "I" have learned things I didn't know. Heck, I read the books for fun myself! lol

My dd is doing Decimals and Percents along with Saxon 1/2. She was a little weak with percents so I started her there in LOF. It was a good idea on my part because she has learned new things and the weaknesses she had in percents is gone. Before this she was doing MUS and she flew through Epsilon and Zeta in just a few months. When she started MUS prealgebra I knew she needed something more challenging but I'm afraid that LOF isn't enough on it's own so I put her in Saxon.

I meant FRED not FREDDIE! Stupid Kindle...

Saxon 3 times a week and Life of Fred 2 times a week. I've thought of having my 14 yo just do Freddie awhile because she says it's harder than Saxon.