Here are couple of nice documentation tricks that I use when I'm in the thick of it. (1) Every time you perform some operation to both sides of an equation, you can preface the change with a little extra notation x + 3 = 6 S3: x + 3 - 3 = 6 - 3 Where S3 stands for "Subtract 3 from both sides." D4 stands for "Divide both sides by 4." I don't do this all the time, unless I'm demonstrating for other students and I want them to be able to recreate what I did. Or I'm working on something complicated and I want to remind myself what steps I've taken. (2) If you are solving 3 (or more) linear equations with 3 variables, I find it useful to number the equations with lower case Roman numbers: (i) 3x + 7y -z =23 (ii) 8x - 7y + 2z =99 (iii) 3y + 17z = 33 Now if I am eliminating one variable from equations (i) and (ii) I'll label my work: (i) and (ii): 23 + z - 3x = 8x + 2z - 99 and so on, so I can keep track of which equations I've used already. And as others have stated it's important to model the behavior you want to see.

You will not die alone. I will join you on that same hill. Vive les mathematiques! ?? ?? ??

Thank you for posting this, and congratulations to your DS! What did you think of the Edhesive statistics course? Pros, cons? Did he think it prepared him well? My younger dd is considering the class.

This is a link to someone doing a live solve of an AMC. I thought the structure of his scratch paper was interesting: dividing each sheet into 4 boxes, one box per problem. This is not what I do, (What if you need more space?) but maybe something to consider.

I like these green engineering pads which the gridlines printed on the back of each page. That way the grid lines are faint and easy to ignore when not needed and don't obscure your writing, especially with pencil. (And you get to pretend to be an engineer!) Teach your kids to read actively. That is, they should be doing a lot of writing as they are reading. In fact, I would model this behavior for your students because the first few chapters of pre-algebra in particular are very dense. Here's an example that I posted on another thread: "Our explanation in Problem 3.28 not only tells us how to find the prime factorization of the least common multiple of 24 and 90. It also tells us that this prime factorization must be included in any common multiple of 24 and 90. That is, any positive common multiple's prime factorization must have 2 raised to at least the 3rd power, 3 raised to at least the 2nd power and 5 raised to at least the 1st power. Also, any multiple of lcm[24,90] must also be a common multiple of 24 and 90." You really need to have the numbers on a pad of paper in front of you with the prime factorizations and multiples listed out so you can see what Richard is saying here. I would read aloud to your student and write out everything. Also: line up your equal signs no stream of consciousness equations try to do the problems on your own first (but don't beat yourself up if you can't figure it out in a few minutes, just go straight to the solution) If you didn't find the solution to the problem on your own (see above) write out the solution they provide. Same with all exercises. My students are allowed to do any calculations in their head...as long as they get the correct answer. Incorrect answers must be written out.

My daughter was homeschooled K-8 and was admitted to a competitive private high school. She'd taken an online biology class from WTMA and took the SAT subject test in bio and did very well. She also had a private tutor for essay writing simply because I'm terrible at teaching that. She had a group chemistry class out of the home of another family, but then the teacher moved away about halfway through the year, so we continued on our own after that. Other than that, she'd had homebrewed classes, except for AoPS online elective courses (not core math which we do at home). HTH.

In college I took a social dance class, and one of my partners couldn't identify the time signature by hearing the music. So he couldn't tell a waltz from cha-cha, and didn't know if the count was 1-2-3 or 1-2-3-4. I finally asked him if he'd ever played an instrument, which he hadn't. So there's that. ? But then he's also a successful lawyer, so it hasn't held him back in his career. ?

I'm sorry, it's been some years since I read it, so I can't say for certain. I just remember viscerally feeling how debilitating corruption can be when it infuses your daily activities.

“Which one of you can take the best pictures?” LOL! I love it! Congratulations to your son...and you! You are a much better DIL than me! Isn't it great when you can laugh about it now!

A few years ago I read Behind the Beautiful Forevers, but I came away thinking India was a horrid place.

Yes, this does happen to students of color. The NY Times reported just last year about an African American student who was terrorized by her white roommate. (The girl was expelled and is facing criminal charges.) IME, your dd dodged a couple of bullets, and will be better off with a roommate who accepts her for who she is. Or maybe it's one of the other reasons the PPs mentioned (athletes, housing shuffles, etc.). In any case, encourage your dd to not take it personally. (I would love for my dd to have her as a roommate.) Looks like she got probation and the charges won't go on her record. Too bad.

Hallelujah! Will he have any student loans?

Mary at Chase Hill School is excellent for this. She is an English PhD, and taught both of my daughters research writing loosely using MCT's curriculum. My dd's met her weekly by skype.

Oh, I'm glad someone else enjoyed this book. I totally agree, it's excellent, and the first half covers most everything you need to know.

8th grade

Can someone help me interpret these results? They were forwarded to me by a parent whose student took the exam at my site: The student’s score (number of points) is: 89 National Ranking: student earned place 29 nationally State Ranking: student earned place 27 in state Number of correct answers: 23 Percent of the test solved correctly: 77% National percentile: 71.1 State percentile: 69.4 Is is a weird coincidence that he was in 29th place and in the 71st percentile nationally? I think this means he earned the 29th highest score, but I wonder if there isn't an error.

Wow, that's a great idea! And a great way to hack Khan Academy as a review tool before school starts.

Others have done a great job of covering the testing issue. But if you think your students aren't retaining the information as you thought they were, you can try what is recommended by BFSU science. I had my dd's keep a science notebook. At the end of each lesson I would give them an oral quiz. So I'd ask them, "what happens when you put a stick into water and why?" I'd transcribe their response and draw the appropriate diagrams on the whiteboard as they also drew it into their notebooks. So if there were any misunderstandings (and there were plenty), I could correct it right away. For some reason they appear to understand while I'm explain it, but when I ask them to explain it to me, the disconnect was clear. This was just for elementary and middle school, where I didn't do any other sort of testing in science.

Coincidentally, this morning dh read aloud this tweet: "I once taught an 8 am college class. So many grandparents died that semester. I then moved my class to 3 pm. No more deaths. And that, my friends, is how I save lives."

Clinic appointment hack: get the earliest appointment of the day, and you'll avoid delayed appointment times. Hooray for 8am!

I agree with xahm that the tests used for math competitions are not designed to test for mastery of material already learned. They are designed so that most, if not all, students will be unable to correctly answer all the questions. They need to be difficult simply to be able to determine a winner. If you have several students who earn a top score, who wins? The fun part of math competitions comes after the exam, when you learn from the problems you couldn't solve correctly. Even if you haven't been introduced to percents, you can spend some time getting an early taste of it and learning in advance of the curriculum.

This reminds me of this past weekend when my dad asked me to fax some IRS forms. It took several tries to explain to him that no one uses a fax anymore. I emailed his forms for him.

In middle school I played the mommy card and forced them to continue homeschool. But by high school I couldn't do it; I needed to let them make the decision. Both dd's chose high school. My older dd dropped out after 6 weeks. It was a bit rough at first, but we got her going with AP chemistry freshman year + some other classes and she took off. My younger dd also tried a different high school, and is just finishing her freshman year. It was hard not to take it personally when they both chose high school. I don't see why you would make them finish a year, if they don't like it. (My older dd came home in tears when she realized what a mistake she made.) And there is nothing wrong with trying high school for a year and then returning to homeschooling. Good luck with your decision!

In elementary we were always finished with schoolwork by noon. In middle school it was more like 2pm, if not sooner. So I'm not asking a lot by schooling through the summer. Pros what everyone else said we still took breaks for the occasional trip or week of camp I can be more relaxed during the proper school year for spontaneous field trips or just days off from school. I know I'll be making it up, and then some, in the summer You never know when finishing a year long curriculum ahead of time will come in handy. Better to be ahead of schedule, than fall behind and need to catch up. Cons It doesn't work for your family.

Another thought: I only have the info for the centers in my area. Have you tried contacting the person in charge of your local center because they probably have the info you need. I received the prizes for my 2 winners a couple of weeks ago, so I'm wondering if everyone received their prizes?