Our group of classical homeschoolers in the Colorado Springs area is offering our second year of math classes using the AOPS curriculum in the fall. We are offering Prealgebra, Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2. We currently have openings for students in all classes, although Algebra and Geometry are approaching capacity. We still have one slot open for an additional math teacher (parents with some experience in subject matter are good candidates.) A full subject range of classes in the classical tradition through the sophomore year are also available. Please PM me if interested.

Our group of classical homeschoolers in the Colorado Springs area is offering our second year of math classes using the AOPS curriculum in the fall. We are offering Prealgebra, Algebra, Geometry, and perhaps Algebra 2. We currently have openings for students and are also in need of an additional math teacher as well as a Chemistry teacher (parents with some experience in subject matter are good candidates.) A full subject range of classes in the classical tradition is offered. Please PM me if interested.

All's fair in love, war, and college applications. It's wonderful that the counselor worked with you. I should explain what I meant by studying for the SAT subject tests. Colleges use them to validate school records. The admissions officers know that educationally some schools are strong and some are weak. In their minds, a 4.0 at ho-hum academy equals a 3.5 at look-at-us prep. So getting strong scores on your subject tests indicates that your GPA has worth. Getting low scores indicates an inflated GPA. The subject tests can be traps for gifted kids. They can breeze through classes with minimal studying. They can get 99th percentile scores on the SAT without effort (the SAT is not rigorous from the standpoint of testing body of knowledge, only ability and skill.) They are busy with band and speech and track and whatever else. They think "another test, piece of cake." Then they're actually expected to remember a whole year's or more worth of knowledge at one time. If one has become accustomed to getting great scores by cramming their short term memory, this can be a disaster. Suddenly you can't remember the details of things you thought you knew. Then you get mediocre scores and don't get into your school of choice. Ask me how I know.:tongue_smilie: Of course, this may not be an issue for your daughter. Maybe her school is a great school that has challenged her. Maybe she has a great memory. I would recommend that she try a practice test and see if she is happy with the results. (This really only matters though if the scores are required by the college. Possibly my info could be out of date also.)

You're not pushy, they lied to you. They probably lied due to some combination of laziness (can't be bothered), ignorance, and preference for the students that began at the school as freshmen (essentially preference for their own teachers and grading policies.) You generally cannot trust these people as the parent of an exceptional child. They are focused on their goals for large masses of average students. If you have carefully recorded percentages for your daughter's grades, I would certainly recommend you try to have the grades amended. Remind them of your previous discussion (you're not suddenly asking for special treatment.) Tell them it now appears that they were incorrect and the plusses are consequential. I agree with the previous posters that hiring a tutor may be a good option. Make sure she studies well for her SAT subject tests and APs. These help validate the grades.

:grouphug:

The engineering company I used to work for would serve pie to everyone on Pi Day. So much fun! (Your link isn't working for me, but maybe the problem is on my end.)

You're thinking of multiplication. A negative times a negative equals a positive. I admire your determination to give your daughter the best. You are teaching her to be resourceful, and that is important. Hang in there.

Lisa, I would take the approach of considering science as the main interest and marine biology, veterinary science, etc. as secondary interests. Many girls are interested in biology when young and then become electrical engineers, chemists, computer scientists, etc. Unless a girl has a parent who is a scientist or engineer, biology is likely to be the first area of scientific interest. That being said, I would plan for her to go into any science field. So absolutely she should take physics. Conceptual physics early on is good. I would also highly recommend calculus-based physics late in the sequence. Her math sequence should also have her taking calculus before the end of high school. This will keep her competitive for the best universities and scholarships. Her interests should of course be taken into account as well. To fit in the extra physics, she can (if needed) take two science courses at a time or do workshops or classes in the summer. If the CC classes are one semester, she can fit in two or more a year. ETA: Advanced chemistry is also a great idea.

I think I'm going to have to buy the app version of Wolfram Alpha. Looks interesting! Mathematica is an amazing program for modeling. Not sure where I stand on his speech though. I would probably agree with PP.

Me too. :001_smile:

I used the "The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hill extensively as an undergrad, both for classes and to design instrumentation. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0521370957/ref=aw_cr_d_books?qid=1330898357&sr=8-1 It is not a textbook, it is a reference book and it minimizes the mathematics as much as possible.

We did Music Together from about 18 months to about 3 years. She spent about 80% of the time running around the perimeter of the room. :tongue_smilie: It didn't bother the teacher, who said my daughter was learning in her own way. We began violin about 2 months ago, at age 3 and 2/3. I had about had it a month in, but her teacher encouraged me to keep with it (she has taught Kindermusik, at times.) She told me that really, I am the teacher and she is the coach. Most of the learning occurs at home, and I always play violin with my daughter. With a young child, it is all about teaching by modeling, until about age eight, which is the traditional age to begin most musical instruction.

Thanks, Rachael!

We've really struggled with this issue also. The first month was pretty frustrating. Then I started setting a timer for her practices, and she seemed to like that. She really took off when we started playing with a CD. Before that, I was lucky to get her to play a dozen notes a day. Now she plays for the whole fifteen minute session. She is still pretty selective about listening to the instructor. The instructor just makes sure I get all the concepts and we work on it at home. It's very time intensive for me at this point, but I've always wanted to play violin so I enjoy it.

:bigear: We're having a very similar situation with our daughter, who is also three. She used to entertain herself for hours at a time as a toddler. Now we get endless streams of questions. Even when she's alone, she will talk or sing to herself. She's not reading much yet, but I think is needing more input, so she has to get it from us. She used to enjoy TV watching, but has learned most of the educational content and seems bored with it. I'm thinking I need to check out some elementary school level educational DVDs from the library, and see if that will help her accomplish more of her learning independently. Also, we need to start working on phonics again to get her reading (it didn't go so well last time I tried, but that was several months ago.) Starting her in violin lessons has had an almost magical effect on her. We couldn't even get her to sleep in her own bed. Then we started learning violin together and she would stay in her bed, play alone again, etc. We just had two really tough days with her not sleeping and being demanding. Then I realized we hadn't been doing violin. We practiced today, and she worked on a puzzle for several hours by herself and stayed in her bed at bedtime. I'm not sure if music lessons would have the same affect on all kids, if it's special to her, if she just needs that close time with me, or if she needs that structure (we usually practice violin every day.) Another thought I've had is that although she has seemed more like an introvert to me, maybe she is just trying out extraversion to see if she likes it. I hope my midnight ramblings make sense. :001_smile:

I love the puzzles at http://www.conceptispuzzles.com "Games World of Puzzles" magazine has some fun puzzles also (just check and make sure it is age appropriate).

Just guessing at 14. I would have been able to handle college work at 14. She's a couple years ahead now (at three) and I expect she will pick up a couple more years once she really starts reading. We have been pretty lax about reading instruction here, we do mostly math and music.

What if we were to break it down into skills and content? Can he explain the problems he has done already? If not, is it a lack of understanding the content, or a lack in the skill of explaining the problem?

The skill that I most wish I had learned before college, and didn't, would be to be okay with not understanding. Higher-level physics and math textbooks routinely give you a small bit of new information and expect you to draw on the whole body of knowledge you have learned to solve challenging problems. Professors routinely give tests where the class average is below 40%. Nobody gets all the problems right. I'm not very familiar with AoPS yet, but the approach sounds great. It's much easier to learn to deal with being comfortable with not understanding when one is young and his financial aid, ability to get a job, etc. isn't adding extra pressure. So, IMHO, the question is, how far does he want to go with math or science? If he wants to go far, then when and how are we going to become comfortable with not knowing?

Sorry, I don't think I explained what I meant very well. Maybe it would be helpful to get your hands on a few weeks of material that the AoPS folks have put out that is just below your daughter's level (if it could be done at a low cost). Then you could see how she reacts to using their methods with material she already knows. If she still enjoys the material, then you can be more comfortable with covering algebra multiple times. If not, then you will have more information to make your decision. (Sorry, re-reading your thread it looks like you were only asking for BTDT, so I probably shouldn't have posted.)

I believe you said that she had already learned what is covered in Beast Academy. You could run her through that, and see if she can still enjoy and learn from it. Then you would have your answer for algebra. (I haven't paid attention to the release dates for BA though, so maybe this won't work.)

I definitely need to read up on VSL. It sounds like sometimes hard-is-easy/easy-is-hard learners aren't VSL. So perhaps the book doesn't describe non-linear learning as it is needed for all types of learners. Are all auditory learners sequential?

This describes how my daughters and I learn best. I can't figure out how we would fit into the descriptions provided by the book, however. My verbal scores have always been better than my math scores. Can a visual/spatial learner be better verbally than mathematically? I figure it's easier to explore an island if you've seen a map. Maybe it doesn't show you where every rock and tree are, but you won't get lost.

Thanks for sharing this post, I saw a Bloom's taxonomy product in the Critical Thinking Company's catalog and had no idea what it was. I'm not so sure about the pyramid diagram. I would picture it as more of a web. I knew I recognized that name, have you read his book on talent development? It is on my wish list.

Looks like they have some fun programs. How'd it go?