Thank you. This is good to know.

Sorry to get us OT about this, but to return to original post: It does strike me as unfair that regular teachers get score reports for their students, but homeschooling parents do not.

I think reviewing old MK tests is a great supplement to whatever regular math curriculum you are using. Every once in a while, take a break from your regular math curriculum to do something fun: an old MK test. She'll learn something new and different and will be a nice break from her usual work.

"It doesn't really surprise me," said Scott DeRuiter, a Monta Vista math and computer science teacher. "They came into my class knowing more about computer science than I did." Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the MVHS computer science department.

Do homeschoolers have access to these score reports?

What is NCEE?

This article was published in our local paper, and it has me a little confused. "Seniors Ashutosh Jindal, Douglas Chen and Prajit Ramachandran recently learned they earned perfect scores on their AP computer science exams. They are three of only 19 students in the world to earn every point on the test." I guess one does not need a perfect exam to score a 5, but I didn't realize that raw scores were also released. Does the AP let students know how they did on individual problems, other than their 1-5 score?

A subscription to EEME: Monthly electronics projects delivered to your home with easy video instructions online.

You want to get a copy of Volume 2, with the red and blue cover. Those problems are divided into elementary and middle school levels. I also heard that a volume 3 is expected to be published soon. The problem you describe in which you must add or subtract equations is a little difficult for elementary students, but it should be a great example to explain to them. (Look at the solutions in the back.) They'll learn a lot above and beyond what they are getting at their public school, which is the whole point of MOEMS, isn't it? I think the attitude you see is probably typical of regular schooled kids who find it outrageous to be tested on something that isn't exactly what they've been taught in class. I'm now coaching my 4th year of MOEMS for homeschoolers, and I have to say practice makes perfect. Also, it isn't uncommon to score 0 or 1 in your first season. Many students have suffered this indignity. I had one schooled girl visit our team and was devastated because she'd always been told she was good at math at her school. Regular schools don't teach problem solving skills (which is one reason I homeschool). The more exams students take, the more familiar they will become with the counting, geometry, and number theory they won't get in public school. And their scores will improve. Immediately after students turn in their exams to me, we review each of the problems. I begin by asking the team how they solved or attempted to solve the problem. I think when students hear how their neighbors attempted to solve the problems they realize it is possible for them, too. Keep it up, and let us know how things go.

School of Rock

I'm not fond of AOPS's brackets to denote area. I prefer a subscript under the "A" to denote what I'm finding the area of. For example Asquare=s2 or sometimes I use a picture of the shape in the subscript or in parentheses: AO=pi*r2 I find while teaching this to be easier to communicate than naming the vertices. And it's easier to keep track of everything when you are adding and subtracting areas, like the area of a square less it's inscribed circle: Asquare - AO = s2 - pi*r2

It is remarkable that Mendel postulated that heredity occurs in pairs, one from each parent, and half of one's genes are passed on to one's offspring. His work was ignored until after his death, when chromosomes and meiosis were finally visualized. All he had to go on were his pea plants and mathematics, and he hit upon the model!

On a standardized test, have you ever skipped using a #2 pencil and just used a mechanical pencil with HB lead? I understand it doesn't make any difference what kind of pencil you use, but I've been too chicken to use anything else.

I used MPH in conjuction with BFSU#2. I bought the whole shebang: workbooks. textbooks, teacher's guides, lab notebooks. The only thing we used was the textbooks which did have lovely color illustrations which worked well with BFSU. But mostly it was a waste of money.

We're working through BFSU3 right now. The sequence is a bit more straightforward than BFSU1 and 2. We did a few lessons in chemistry, then went straight through biology. Then we'll finish chemistry and move on to physical science followed by earth science.

Great article. Thank you for passing it on.

I'm not a speech expert, but I wish we had had my daughter undergo an orthodontic exam before beginning ST. It would have saved us a lot of time, effort, and expense knowing that her speech issues were related to the anatomy of her mouth.

I do. When I read this article, I felt like what was really going is there was widespread exposure to the arts in the 60s and 70s that many people now in their 40s-60s are musician hobbyists. Sadly, I don't think the subsequent generations benefit from this exposure to music, primarily in their schools. But I don't think this shows that musicianship implies success in other areas. Though there might be a correlation between possessing the patience and tenacity to practice and achieve in music with similar skills in other areas of life.

Thank you for this recommendation. Should one buy the Teacher's Edition, Student Edition or both? (And why are the test booklets so expensive?)

I was looking at LAoW on Amazon, and I notice there are 3 editions: 1969, 1975, and 1987. I know it's a silly question, but do you recommend any particular copy, or should I purchase the most recent one? ETA: Actually, now that I look morely closely, the 1987 edition seems to have versions with different subtitles: "Understanding Forms" and "Developing Structure." I'm not the OP, but I'm in the same boat!

I ran one for my preteen dd, but I was pretty awful. Then I hired a lovely woman who was homeschooled herself, and she actually enjoys reading and discussing these books. She's worth every penny.

What always ticked me off about GS was their threat that if we didn't follow all procedures, we wouldn't qualify for their insurance which protects us from lawsuits. Really? Exactly how many lawsuits are being filed over GS-related injuries? It seems to me GS has so many rules to follow, precisely so they CAN exclude you from coverage from all these "lawsuits" that we never seem to hear about.

Just finished Sonia Sotomayor's (First Latina Supreme Court Justice.) My Beloved World. West Side Story meets Yale Law School

Doesn't sound terrible to me at all, and maybe this is a topic for another thread, but I for one am very interested to know more about your kids' bad experiences at this SEU's.

I lead a couple of math olympiad teams. After they take the exams, I have the students tell me how they solved each problem. Sometimes their solutions are elegant, and sometimes they are more like guess and check. ("Well, I figure a shirt probably costs $15, but that was too high so then I tried $12...") But I think it helped for students to see how other students puzzle through their solutions, trying different approaches and hitting roadblocks. If you can pull it together, math olympiad teams can be a great adjuct for learning this skill.