Dd14 found out this morning she got a 5 on AP CS! She had a big smile on her face! And partly so I don't seem too braggy, and partly to benefit others who are considering working toward AP CS, here was our path: We started in late elementary learning python, using a great book called Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner by Michael Dawson. Actually, we got about as far as the chapter that introduces OOP before we dropped it, but I recommend the book highly for self study in python. Then dd took the Coursera course taught by the professors from Rice on python. The she took the AoPS python class, back when it hadn't been divided into intro and advanced python. She found that course very fast-paced and challenging and time consuming. Even though it's been split into 2 courses now and is slower paced, I still recommend holding off on taking the AoPS class until you've had some exposure under your belt. The we worked through the TeenCoder book, but she just didn't feel like it really prepared her very well. All the information was there, but the end of chapter problems weren't challenging enough. Note: I believe the author of TC Java is updating this book as I write, so if you are reading this some time after I post, check whether there are improvements in the new edition. The author is quite earnest in providing preparation for AP CS, and he responded quickly to my emailed questions. We did provide him with detailed feedback, so I'm optimistic the new edition will be much improved. Now it was January and mid stream she joined the Amplify MOOC class already in progress. She started at the beginning, and was 4 months behind, but had no trouble catching up, probably because she already so much programming experience, and from what I hear the class is slow paced. Within a couple of months she was fully caught up. We purchased the Barron's books for more practice, though she thought the practice tests were good practice and as a refresher. I hope this helps you all on this journey. It's been such a great confidence boost for her.

You gotta be careful with that scary pirate avatar of yours, lol.

This is one of the reasons I stopped reading facebook. Also because Cal Newport told me to.

Thanks, Reg. DD13 thought her practice MC exams were much easier than the actual test. She took extra time to be careful on the MCs, but then was close to running out of time. (On the practice tests, she finished with extra time left over.) Still waiting for our scores.

Congratulations to all of you! By chance, are you in the north east? It looks those of us in the west need to bite our nails until Friday! :crying:

When your ds returns from TIP, could you post a brief review of the program? (I hope he has a great time!)

So now you know what he really thinks of homeschoolers, and by extension you.

I do supplement with educational TV, but I really did not like Discovery Streaming. My experience with DS is a few years old now, but I found the free stuff on youtube to be of higher quality and just more fun and inspired than DS.

Would you mind sharing what specifically you did to help your relationship with your teen?

You may want to check out the NPR program and website Living on Earth.

I have been coaching for 3 seasons. I started by finding as many old chapter tests as were available for purchase or on the internet. I started with chapter, then state and national level, making up my own lesson plans as I went along. If you or anyone else decides to take the class, PM me!

Here's an anecdote. When my dd was in 6th grade she had a lovely group homeschooled girlfriends, including someone I'll call "Anne." Then another girl (I'll call "Betty") was recently pulled from school and joined the group of homeschoolers, and she soon had designs on Anne. I don't know if it was leftover from "socialization" from school or what, but she decided that Anne was first and foremost her own #1 bestie, and everyone else can take the hindmost. Anne was flattered to be singled out, and suddenly what had been a nice stable situation became upended when Anne and Betty decided they were the cool ones, leaving everyone else behind. Girls! This was painful for my dd who suddenly lost her friend Anne. Where homeschooling really helped was that we could simply decide to not hang out with this temporarily toxic situation. While it was still painful for dd, she did not need to find someone new to sit with at lunch, or face these two girls every day in an unsupervised environment. I also encouraged her to pursue other extracurriculars and return to park days to make new friends. Eventually, the Anne and Betty's moms got involved and had a big Kumbaya, and everything went back to normal, and dd resumed her old friendships, missing out on most of the drama and emotion. Ironically, Anne, Betty, and the other girls were also in a co-op learning situation, so the drama was much more acute for those girls than mine who is mostly schooled at home. I hope this illustrates how homeschooling gives your more power to attenuate situations which tend to waste emotional energy, particularly for girls. Good luck!

Ready Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

I think it's new this year.

There's also a new online class for MC coaches. Is anyone out there going to sign up with me?

Can you have some fun but optional activity available in the 10-15 minutes before class begins to encourage early arrivals?

did you see the samples? They look identical except some of the words in the teacher manual are bolded. I wonder if the exams are in the teacher manual?

I can't offer much help, but I'd like to say it sounds like you live in an awesome neighborhood.

I agree with the above advice to provide a solid foundation in elementary math, whatever curriculum you use. But I think if you want a smooth transition to AoPS, an important strategy is to avoid situations where you and your students regularly expect to get 95-100% of the problems correct. Always challenge them and make sure they are confronting problems they can't solve, at least not in the first 5-10 minutes. You want your students to grow accustomed to solving hard problems without being sad. One way to accomplish this is to spend a regular amount of time on old MOEMS exams, especially volumes 2 and 3. Start with the elementary level and when your student is regularly getting 4 or 5 correct, then switch up to middle school level. (Don't wait until they are actually in middle school if the elementary level is already too easy.) When middle school level MOEMS is too easy, then start doing old chapter level MathCounts problems or old AMC8 problems. Always keep them challenged!

Something similar happened to me freshman year. Every other weekend my roommate would fly home to be with her family. I know it seems stupid, but it was kind of a drag at the time. I was looking forward to having a friend for a roommate, or at the very least someone I could hang out with on the weekends. Not being in a recognized minority group or part of a church or a member of a sorority, I was kind of on my own.

I believe the online versions of the books are new this year, so you may not get many responses, but I suspect gadget is correct, the online texts are identical to the hard copies. You can also feel free to contact the course instructor on the message board. My dd is taking an AoPS class right now, and we have found the instructor to be quick to respond to questions on the message board.

The AP CS score distributions are posted.

It's a class called...wait for it...Math 2! I have no idea what it is either, but we figure it must have geometry as a prereq. In an email, the school recommended that the students be familiar with sigma notation, and I thought that would be an easy summer topic. And I thought logarithmic id's would be easy to knock off as well. If we have more time this summer, I'd also like to hit piecewise defined functions, only because I thought that was fun in high school. (Can't forget the hiccup function: f(x) = 1 if x is an integer,and f(x)=0 if it isn't!) You know, I do have volume 2 lying around; thank you for the recommendation. I'll open it up and take a look.

Do you have any words of inspiration for getting through the polynomials chapters? We're getting so bogged down and I'm seriously considering just moving past them, so we can get to the more basic stuff she'll need for school in the fall.

Please keep us informed of his progress. We're a little bogged down in the polynomials chapters right now. It's at a level far, far beyond what I did in high school. I may take the advice of someone else here, and skip the remaining polynomials chapters (except Vieta's formulas) and move on. But I only have the summer left before dd starts regular school, so I want to make sure she has some experience with sigma notation and she understands the logarithmic identities. (Aren't there only 5 of them?)