I use them with no problems. However, I also always use rinse aid, which is strongly recommended for our dishwasher (Bosch).

I'm going through the same thing. My DS has done really well with SM and is finishing up level 5. But looking at level 6, in addition to having no HIG, it seems shorter than the others. I think he would easily finish it before the new year. I've looked at MIF but there is no workbook for level 6. At this point, I I'm leaning towards MM 6. His conceptual understanding is incredible, but I'd like him to have a thorough review of fractions before AOPS.

Well CLE covers pre-algebra over two years. My DD is doing 700 this year and it does take a LONG time for her to complete, but I'm so pleased with how much she is learning and retaining. What about Horizons Pre-Algebra? It's spiral and thorough.

I'm bumping this because I have the exact question as the OP. Is the NY library the best one to join if I can? Are there any national libraries with a huge digital collection?

My DD is doing Rainbow Science next year for 8th. I'm going to have her do it all in one year, by working 5 days a week and doubling up on some of the readings. My DS is currently doing Exploration Education. He absolutely LOVES it. He is very engineering minded and can do it almost entirely on his own. The only thing that is slightly frustrating for me is that the textbook is all online with no optional print book, so it can sometimes be hard to find information if he needs help with a test or quiz. Both of these programs come with EVERYTHING. That is my requirement for science from now on!

These are great suggestions and have given me a lot of direction! Thank you! I think we are both ready to be done with roller coasters. For her next paper, I'm going to help her develop a clear purpose and keep the focus more narrow.

Farrar, that is so helpful! You are right, her knowledge is almost all from going to WDW. She watched POV videos and read through a Disney travel book to refresh her memory. I think the lack of purpose comes from the fact that this started as free writes, and then she decided to write about EACH one and then she slapped on an intro and a conclusion. I should have guided her towards making it a brochure, that would have been more appropriate for this! Your feedback about the intro is super helpful. Thanks so much! Ok. So we need writing projects with a clear purpose. I had picked out several to do this year from BW's WJ and PW, but we seem to have gone off on a rabbit trail of freewrites. This is great direction for the next few months! Thank you 🙂

I'm looking for general feedback on this and either reassurance that my DD is writing on grade level or suggestions on what to do for 8th grade to prepare her for high school. She will be taking the BraveWriter Middle School Writing Projects class in May and my plan is for her to do a few more BW classes next year if that goes well. But if she needs more help than that, I am totally open to other writing classes. (I just don't know which!) She wrote this paper over many weeks by writing freewrites about roller coasters at Disney World, then typing up the freewrites and editing them individually. This is based on our vacation last fall. She loves to read travel books and magazines and I think you can see that influence. I offered some suggestions and helped with revisions but it is largely her work. Today she printed the final copy. I know it's long, so thank you in advance for reading! Edited to add -- she does use appropriate paragraphs, but that didn't come through in my copy/paste. ___________________________________ Coasting with Disney Have you ever sped down a highway in the dark while riding a limousine? Or taken an expedition train through Mount Everest and seen a yeti? What about riding on The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and seeing the Dwarfs’ very own cottage? These experiences and more can be found at Walt Disney World. Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom is an awesome roller coaster. You ride a train through snow-capped mountains. When you are going up, you stop at the top and the track appears to be broken. This coaster has forward and backward drops and a frightening yeti looming over you. The end of this ride is through a mountaineering gift shop. If you like wild rides, then Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Magic Kingdom is one for you. It is a roller coaster that takes you through lots of rocky canyons. The first time it takes you up, it gets very loud and you go through a dark cavern with bats hanging from the ceiling. The twists and turns are pretty fun! I also love Rock’N’ Roller Coaster in Hollywood Studios. After a 3, 2, 1 countdown, it shoots you out at an exhilarating speed! This thrilling highway takes you upside down twice. There are road signs along the way as you ride through the dark while listening to Aerosmith music. Space Mountain is also a roller coaster in the dark, but there are little lights on the walls. You can kind of see through the darkness. You sit in a three seater rocket and it shoots you through a tunnel with blinking blue lights! This coaster has small drops and fast turns. At the end, it takes you through a tunnel with flashing red lights before you slow to a stop and the ride is over. This roller coaster is located in Magic Kingdom’s Tomorowland. The newest roller coaster in Magic Kingdom is The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. You sit in a train while twisting and turning throughout rocky hills. At one point, it takes you through a dark diamond mine filled with sparkling gems. It feels like you’re underground and you can see the dwarfs hard at work. Dopey looks adorable with diamonds on his eyes! At the end, you see Snow White and the dwarfs dancing happily in their cottage. You also see the evil witch standing outside the door with her poisoned apple. This is a really fun ride! Brand new in 2018, Slinky Dog Dash joined the Disney lineup of coasters. It is located in Hollywood Studios’ Toy Story Land. While you are waiting on line, you can see pictures that Andy drew. You ride through Andy’s backyard in a coaster that looks like Slinky Dog. This is a lot tamer than Rock’N’ Roller Coaster, but it is still wild. You must be at least 38 inches to ride. This ride has small drops, and at one point, Slinky Dog backs up with a 3-2-1 countdown, and then... SURPRISE! He dashes! Animal Kingdom’s Primeval Whirl is a mini roller coaster located in Chester and Hester’s Dino- Rama which is a part of Dinoland U.S.A. The ride sets you up to feel like you are going back in time as you sit in a mini time machine. This ride spins and bumps along the track. The jerkiness made me feel nauseous, so if you get motion sickness, you might want to skip this ride. The illusion of time-travel is represented by clocks, spinning black and white discs, and pictures of dinosaurs. You must be 48 inches tall to ride this wild mini coaster. Fantasyland has many tame rides, but the Barnstormer is an exception. This coaster is located near the Dumbo ride in Storybook Circus. You ride in a red airplane with wings on two of the seats. At the beginning, you soar through a big sign that has a picture of Goofy dressed like a pilot. This ride is fast and has small drops. A great time to ride this mini coaster is during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. There will probably be barely any lines, or maybe none at all. If you’re lucky, you might also meet Goofy dressed in a Santa suit. You must be 35 inches tall to ride the Barnstormer. Well, there you have it folks. Those are all the coasters in Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida. From dark, speedy Rock ‘N’ Roller coaster to the small yet wild Barnstormer, all these coasters are special in their own way. FUN! FAST! THRILLING! Those are just some words to describe these AWESOME coasters in Disney World. And it’s all thanks to Walt Disney and the fact that he never gave up on his extraordinary dream.

I'm unclear from your post how many kids you have, their ages, and their schooling situations, but here are my thoughts. First-- I have two kids, a girl and boy, two years apart. We have always homeschooled and they have always been each other's company when we are not spending time with other families. They don't always want to do the same thing especially now that they are 13 and 11, and that's fine. But they have cultivated a good sibling relationship being schooled together at home. Second-- I may be a bad mother for this, but I do not play with my kids, except for family games sometimes and school related activities. I do not play Barbies, cars, Legos, American Girl, etc. I educate them and feed them and run this house and I just don't have time for that. But they have always had plenty of free play time and as much time for friends as we could manage. Third-- my daughter especially has had to learn that life is not one big playdate, sorry. She would love to see friends everyday but that's not logistically possible. We have always spent time with other homeschooling families with kids of different ages and genders. When they were little, it was more often. Now it is about once a week or every other week. What i have seen over time is that my kids and other homeschooling kids are so flexible in who they hang out with, regardless of age or gender. But public schooled kids get stuck in a box of wanting a same age/gender peer. They won't "lower themselves" to play with a younger child. It's sad, really. Now that my kids are older, they see their friends at extracurricular activities, sometimes have a friend over or go to a friend's house, and FaceTime their friends when they can't see them in person. This cannot happen logistically as much as my daughter would like, but that's life. Not knowing the situation with your other kids, I'm not sure what I would do in your shoes. The school sounds wonderful during the day, but the homework for me would be a deal breaker. I wouldn't keep her there just to get her social needs met, although it might be more work for you to arrange playdates and she might have to adjust her expectations of time with friends.

Their graphics are really a turn-off for me now. I used to be very drawn to their catalog and materials but the cartoon look just doesn't appeal to me.

I think what I really want is Singapore, because he has thrived with it and really has incredible intuitive understanding. But I also want him to go through a general math review. And I need material to last the school year. If I get Standards 6A/B, he will be through it by January. I looked at MiF--it seems like it has more to the program for the year, but there is no workbook. I can't find a good enough sample of Dimensions to figure out if that would work for him and be enough.

Thanks -- what are you switching to?

I'm not finding them, but it seems the lower levels do have a text and workbook. Can the extra practice books be used as the student's main workbook, instead of copying problems from the textbook?

I have looked at MiF and I can't remember why I dismissed it. It's worth looking again. Thanks 🙂 He really is a mathy kid and would probably be fine going into Pre-A, but I don't want him to float by on his mathy-ness with gaps that might cause problems for him later. I could see him doing very high level math in high school, so I want to make sure his foundation is solid.

I don't know, but you might want to check your junk mail/spam folder. I've emailed them a few times in the last couple weeks with questions and they have been very prompt in responding.

I have heard the Dimensions program is harder to teach than SM, so I didn't consider it. But hopefully I will be able to take a closer look at the teacher's guide at a convention. Thanks. I thought about using Foundations as well. The textbook format does give me pause. That is one thing that appeals to me about Horizons, since it would give him one more year of a workbook format before jumping to a textbook.

I'm stuck on what to do for my DS11 next year. He'll finish Singapore Standards 5b this spring and I'm going to start him on Beast Academy online as a supplement. He is very mathy and has great conceptual understanding. He often solves word problems in some convoluted way that I can't even wrap my brain around. However, he does forget procedures that I think should be solid before moving on to pre-algebra/algebra. I have AOPS in mind for him for 7th grade but I want something for him for next year (6th) to get all his foundational math rock solid. For example, he will forget that when dividing fractions, you multiply by the reciprocal. But as soon as I tell him, he says "oh yeah!" and completes everything with little error. I recently realized that there is no HIG for Singapore Standards 6. I cannot stomach paying for the classroom teacher's guide. If I switch him to Singapore U.S., it looks like there are skills missing from the scope and sequence chart. And anyway, it looks like level 6 would only be about a semester's worth of work for him. I love Math Mammoth, but he is very averse to it because there are so many problems. I know we could just do less problems, but he has begged me NOT to get MM. I'm looking at BJU because I have read that it is thorough, uses similar methodology as Singapore, and the scope and sequence seems to have what I want him to practice for next year. Any potential problems with that? I also looked at Horizons. It seemed to target all the skills that I want him to practice in 6th grade, but would the methods be too different for a kid who has thrived with Singapore? With anything we do, I'm going to sign him up for BA online and have him start working through it for practice and for fun. I think it might reinforce concepts that he forgets and also challenge him on a level he enjoys. Anything else I should consider?

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I'm so glad to read this!! My daughter was diagnosed with PANS two years ago. It was such a nightmare, but I am so thankful it was identified and treated rather quickly (which in her case was 9 months after the initial trigger). I always think about how DD's immunologist told me that she sees kids who have been undiagnosed for years. There are so many kids suffering needlessly from PANS/PANDAS! I will never stop telling people about it.

CLE is extremely incremental with lots of review. It really sounds like the student needs to park for awhile and solidify everything.

Ok, this is interesting. I had to pay sales tax last year on stuff I bought at the convention when I would not have if i had ordered it online from them. I actually asked them about it when I realized later and they said it was PA law. I wonder if they started covering it after that to help with convention sales. Either way, I'm going to buy at the convention to encourage vendors to come back. It is so, so helpful to see things in person.

EDITED TO ADD: I don't know why this font is so tiny! And I can't fix it, sorry!! She is 9 and doing 5th grade work. You don't need to worry about her getting behind. It could be that she hit a developmental wall with math and just needs to park there for awhile. FWIW, I love CLE. My DD is using it now for 7th and I wish I had put her in it YEARS ago. The new information is in such small bites and there is so much review. I just love it! But I definitely think you should take a break from progressing through the books, do math games, and practice any skills she struggles with. Math Mammoth single topic downloads are cheap and FABULOUS for targeting specific skills/concepts. And they might fill in some of the conceptual gaps as well. You can pick up CLE again when she's a little older and she'll still be completely on grade level. One more thing that might help--my daughter does the new skills last in CLE. She goes through the review and does everything she can, then asks me for help with the new material. It boosts her confidence to start out with stuff she knows each time.

I don't think Prodigy should be used as a main math program. If you want something computer based, what about CTC Math or even Teaching Textbooks? Prodigy is designed to be a reinforcement. It does not give math instruction, except the "hints".

The authors do say that, but in asking around here and looking into it further, it is not enough for high school biology on its own when you compare it to high school level programs. And really if the whole two year program can be done "easily" in one year by a middle schooler, how could a quarter of it be equivalent to a year long high school course? I'm excited to have my DD do the course for 8th grade but I definitely would not use it for high school unless it was significantly beefed up.

I'm using Rainbow Science for my upcoming 8th grade DD next year and I'm going to have her do it all in one year. I've searched the forums here and even emailed them, and it is apparently not hard to do in one year.