If you hadn't seen it, I was going to pm you :001_smile: Thanks, as always, for the detailed advice! Hmmm ... good advice. I will show this to my son, but he is eager to do physics (just high-school level) next year, so it may be a hard sell. :001_smile: ~Laura

I'm hoping Kathy in Richmond will jump in here, as she's more familiar with both Spectrum and the math sequences, but I looked ahead in the Spectrum text and they do have calculations with pH in the later chapters ... for calculating pH it's useful to have some familiarity with logarithms. In the beginning of the course they do unit conversions (changing km to inches, for example), and students are also expected to be able to manipulate numbers with exponents, such as 6 x 10^23. Being familiar with scientific notation and significant figures is also useful. Oh, here's a quote from the "Prerequisites" section on the first page of the teacher's manual -- it says it better than I can: Prerequisites High school chemistry requires a thorough working knowledge of Algebra I. Specifically, students will be required to rearrange algebraic equations having up to six variables each having units of measure associated with them. They will be taught to express answers in scientific notation and to the correct number of significant figures. However, if they are not already well-versed in these subjects, we offer a course called Bridge Math that will thoroughly develop these talents and test the student's preparedness for this course. HTH! ~Laura

That's the only one that didn't work for us, and only because my son spilled some of the chemicals (he's learning to be more careful! He lives large :001_smile:) I was looking forward to lighting the LED ...

We're planning to use Chemadvantage for AP Chem!

Re: Spectrum ... There's no excuse for not returning calls ... and I see one of their programs for younger kids is still not shipping ... but I just want to mention that we've had great customer service. I placed two orders last summer, one for a textbook & the lab equipment/chemicals, another ordering a second textbook/manual -- and everything arrived within a week -- and we're on the opposite coast. I did pay by credit card (or was it PayPal?) through their website, so perhaps sending a check slowed things down?? ... anyway I hope you get your stuff soon ... ~Laura

We're using Spectrum and *love* it. In fact the boys (that includes my ps son and my husband) are looking forward to doing Lab 19 this evening, making a hot flame from ethanol in a gel :D I have two degrees in chemistry (although I haven't been a "practicing" chemist for quite a while) and I find it a wonderful program for bright kids who don't want much repetition and who pick up the basics quickly. Apologia biology was starting to drive my kids batty ... although they didn't hate it ... this is a better fit for our family for chemistry than Apologia, however. We started out this year using Holt (what a lab class my son is taking in Berkeley recommended) and quickly bailed -- along with at least three other families. Too wordy -- even I was getting confused, haha. I'm so happy Kathy in Richmond recommended Spectrum :001_smile: The labs use real chemicals, there are a lot of them but they don't take too long, and they work! We've had great customer service -- two orders, one of textbook & chemicals, another ordering a second set of textbook/manual -- with everything arriving within a week. I did pay by credit card (or was it PayPal?) through their website, so perhaps a check slowed things down?? Anyway I'll respond on that other thread - hadn't seen it until it was linked to above. ~Laura

We used to be with a charter school that supposedly offered a-g courses, but even then it was a nightmare (OSU German wasn't a-g, even though they're HQTs, b/c they're not CA-approved :glare:; my son's orchestra class at our local CC wasn't a-g b/c the teacher isn't CA-credentialed :glare: ...). I decided to focus on my sons' educations and not worry about the a-g requirements. One of my kids tests well and we're planning to use the SAT testing route (for example, his 710 on SAT Writing portion supposedly covers four years of a-g high-school English. Which I find absurd, b/c he was eleven when he got that score ... and still has to take four years of high-school English (which he would anyway, of course), and then they'll retroactively call it a-g ... :confused:). Anyway the SAT subject test scores are very low that make a course "count" (such as a 530 on chemistry). Don't know how one handles the lab requirement ... :confused: ETA: I should clarify that it was our umbrella/charter homeschool organization that decided he should still take four years of high-school English and *then* they'd call it a-g. It's quite possible that UC would give him credit (when he applies, which would be during his fourth year of high-school English, so kind of the same thing, in practice) just because of the exam score. On the page I've linked they use terminology like "score of XXX clears one year", so it seems -- I have to ask UC directly -- that the test takes the place of a class ... but here is the page detailing which scores satisfy a-g requirements. Quite low to just satisfy the a-g requirement, but obviously the higher the score, the better your chances of admission ... A) History/social science ... SAT Subject Examination U.S. History: Score of 550 satisfies one year. World History: Score of 540 satisfies one year. etc. We have some time yet, but I plan to call UC and ask more questions about this subject-test policy ... and also the 'examination path'. It says the subject tests you use for that can't be subjects you've taken a college class in ... so if we use Math Level 2, but my son takes multivariable calculus at the CC, will Math Level 2 (precalc) still count? :confused: As a PP says, the UCs aren't the value they used to be, so we're hoping for good merit/need-based aid at a private school, but the UCs will (hopefully) be a backup like they were for me eons ago. In fact, my parents met at Cal :001_wub: ~Laura

Apparently ever since Rupert Murdoch acquired the WSJ it has become more sensational. There are certainly more sports pieces and more "fluff" pieces about the mansions of rich folks than there used to be. I'm disappointed as well. ~Laura

As a girl I read "A Little Princess" so many times, and wished my name were Sara-without-an-h :001_smile: I read "A Little Princess" to my boys when they were about 8 or 9, and later they asked me to read it again, twice :001_smile: There's something about her fairy-tale life, and then the harsh life, and her courage and graciousness throughout ... :iagree: I love Harriet's bookishness, and the way she straddles life in the ivory tower and life as a mystery-writer ... and her unflinching honesty ... and courage ... etc. etc. :001_smile:

Gosh, Russell Peters is SO funny! That's cute that your 6yo imitates him :001_smile: I sent the clip above to my brothers (we grew up with a strict Asian dad) and they both thought it was hilarious. I also think it's funny that it was a Chinese-American kid who introduced us to a South Asian comic, but the cultures are obviously quite similar! ~Laura

Yes, it's about prestige. Piano and violin are prestigious instruments. And orchestras need a LOT of violins and only a handful each of brass & woodwinds. We always find it amusing at the San Francisco Symphony orchestra to note that almost all of the violin players are Asian, and there are NO Asians NOT playing violin (not even cello or bass -- and not, heaven forbid, a "low-class" instrument like trombone or clarinet!!). :lol: A Korean mom once told me she didn't quite approve of her daughter's playing the trumpet in the local high-school jazz band; she let her do it, but thought it was a waste of time. (The daughter just graduated from Stanford, by the way.) Yes, totally. And there is more than a "kernel" of truth in it. Witness the SF symphony, and even the local youth orchestra. In fact, my 15yo son switched from violin to (gasp!) viola 18 months ago, mainly b/c he didn't want to practice 3 hours a day (or even half an hour a day LOL) on violin to keep up with the Asian-American kids who totally dominate the string section in the youth orchestra. He is now highly-sought-after for playing in pits and small ensembles, because there aren't that many viola players out there. He just played in the pit for the local "Nutcracker" (8 performances) and was just asked to play in a local production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." There is NO way he would have made it into the pit for either of those if he were still on violin ... the competition is just too fierce with all the Asian-Americans (and a handful of white kids). He LOVES playing in pit orchestras -- the buzz of the performance, plus the fun music, plus the relative anonymity of the pit, perhaps ... Anyway, I can't decide whether I admire his savvy (at age 14, realizing how to work the system!) or whether I feel like a slacker-mom for letting him bail on the violin (I AM half-Asian, after all, and it's pretty engrained to push for being the best in everything ...) BTW my kids & I loved the video shared in this thread about the two boys pretending to be a mom and a kid with a B+ on his report card. Here's another video by an Indian-Canadian comedian (warning: strong language!!) that my 13yo son was introduced to by his Chinese-American roommate at math camp last summer -- the Asian kid would quote from this video; it obviously struck a chord with him. (It's good these kids growing up in such households have humor to help them cope!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5jlrxcpkI OK, one more thing to stuff into this post: my sister-in-law is Chinese; she's 32, and came to the US at age 27. She is writing a book about her life growing up in China, which will include much criticism of the Chinese-communist education system (a PP was right, it's the schools that impose discipline on Chinese kids. The kids were forced to sit for hours with their hands behind them and not move a muscle. She fantasized about putting her feet up on the desk, but never dared do it.) Anyway, I'll just quote from some of her (horrified) emails about the WSJ article: You know I think the problem of this lady is that usually neurotic people do not know they are neurotic, and she is even proud of it. The result of being raised up in a distorted way like that, either by abusing parents or government, is that 1) you hate it 2) you take it as life 3) you think it's great. Not everyone ended up in 1) and in fact a lot of them ended up in 3). I just can't believe that wsj is promoting this. ... Yeah I know this is a free country, but what I don't understand is why major media are promoting this type of out of date fobby things. Even Chinese don't really do the same way anymore. I sent this to my friends yesterday and they were all furious. One of my friends said "please don't represent my mother! She is not as disgusting as you are!" ... Yeah i should remember that is why i hated my media job so much that i did not even remember very much! I hope someone can reach a right point at the end. This is such a freaky immigrant thing. I don't think there is any value that worth learning for Americans. Even her valid points, there is a book written by Dave's Stanford soccer fellow called Nurture Shock covered all in a much more scientific and sensible way. But I guess for media moderate and reasonable means not enough eyeballs. OK, one last thing ... most Asian and Indian families we know place a high value on education but are not abusive ... we attended the local MathCounts competition last weekend, over a hundred kids from all over town, and I couldn't help noticing that there were several Asian and Indian *grandparents* attending to cheer on their grandkids ... but a lot of the white kids didn't even have their own parents there to watch, much less older siblings and grandparents. There just seems to be more family support for academic events in these families, whereas I've seen some of the white families (who were *not* at MathCounts) sit for hours in freezing weather at sports events, or sit watching ballet rehearsals for hours ... just a different emphasis. I'm not saying the Asian/Indian kids are better off overall (and certainly many of them do sports & dance) -- just that academic pursuits are valued -- and can be, without it being neurotic helicopter parenting! ~Laura

:iagree: No one clapped here (I was disappointed, but didn't want to be the one to start it ... and yes, most people jet out of the theatre, whereas we always want to watch the credits!), but a friend of mine in San Diego said people there clapped at the end of "King's Speech." ~Laura

Agreeing with the comments above ... at our local high school, students can choose *either* regular US History or AP USH in 11th grade (after taking World History in 10th grade and something else in 9th). However, regular biology (with a good grade) and mandatory homework the summer before are prerequisites for AP Biology. ~Laura

The conventional wisdom seems to be that if it's nearing the end of the school year when a child is pulled from ps -- say, April or May -- it's OK to wait until October to file the PSA. Otherwise, it's better to file when the private school is established mid-year. ~Laura

FTR (seems to be the new acronym on this board!) I think it's the sister who put it on YouTube. The description talks about "my sister." I agree with the people who think the mom was just filming it b/c it was funny, and the older sister (like a lot of teens) posted it for the world to see. I hope she asked her mom for permission first ... You know, I'm going to show this to my, yes, 13yo son :001_smile: He delights in making fun of Justin Bieber, as do most of his friends. I've never heard him sing, and yes, his hair drives me nuts, but I've been telling my son that Justin is probably more a victim of his parents/managers/success ... and that we should feel sympathy for him (seeing how Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, etc. seem to be having trouble entering adulthood ...). It's good to hear that perhaps he is a "nice kid" (like I said, I know nothing about him except the derisive comments I hear from my son -- which are usually reserved for Microsoft :D). :iagree: ~Laura

:iagree: I voted "yea" also, b/c our experience was much like Bill's. It was a 2-hour (Tues. & Thurs.) co-op run by our town rec department, within walking distance of our home. My son & I made some great friends. It's also, by the way, where we met our first real live homeschoolers :001_smile: At first I thought they were nuts, but we eventually came over to the "dark side" :D ~Laura

I also LOVE my paper books, but I love my iPad as a nice *supplement*. For example, my son and I were listening to an audio version of Great Expectations during lunch, and it was awesome to be able to prop the iPad up on the table at an angle so we could follow along on the (free) iBooks version of GE on a nice parchment-colored background, enlarge the font size if we wanted, make the font size smaller if we wanted to feel like we were making faster progress :001_smile:, and, as other posters have said, look up unfamiliar and archaic words ... when I'm reading a "real" book I would never get up and use a dictionary, so I usually forget about the words later. Also, when I was confused by something (like Wemmick referring to "Little Britain" -- what's that? I hadn't been paying attention earlier), it was so easy to search for the term earlier in the book and find out - oh, that's what he calls his house ... saved a lot of confusion, and can't do that so easily in a paper book!

Thanks, Denise! That's a good resource to know about. I paid full price at Godine (publisher's site). Oh, well :001_smile: I'll know next time! ~Laura

For anyone who may be interested in buying this book, I think I've figured it out. In the hour since I posted above, *all* the "new" copies at Amazon from third-party sellers, priced from $25 to over $50, were bought ... leaving overpriced $55 used copies. (That's what happens when an enthusiastic review appears in a widely read newspaper!) So I went to the publisher's site and found it available there. I guess they're not selling through Amazon. At least I understand it now! :001_smile: ~Laura

I just read this book review in this morning's Wall Street Journal about a new book called "Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric." The title of the review is "The Syntax of Style: A guide to the literary tropes and rhetorical forms that once made English prose so stylish and compelling." Of course that got my attention! Here's an excerpt from the review: In "Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric," Ward Farnsworth sets out to remedy this. A professor at the Boston University School of Law, Mr. Farnsworth has previously published "The Legal Analyst," which he described as "a collection of tools for thinking about legal questions," and a guide to chess tactics. This book manifests his familiar pragmatism and distaste for rarefied theory; billed as "a lively set of lessons," it is in fact more akin to a well- curated exhibition of rhetorical accessories. "Everyone speaks and writes in patterns," Mr. Farnsworth states. We have absorbed models of expression, which we reproduce "without thinking much about it." Yet we can study the patterns and learn to make our utterances more effective. To this end he maps the rhetorical figures that are, as he puts it, "practical ways of working with large aesthetic principles." Selecting passages from favorite authors and orators, and providing judicious remarks about them, he offers "help to those who wish to be on better terms with such techniques." In its popular use, the adjective "rhetorical" has become a slur, conveying images of bombast and bloatedness. We are apt to associate it with the prolix statements of policy makers and the aureate pomposity of evangelists. Mr. Farnsworth wants to reclaim the word and the principles it truly betokens. He is the inheritor of a substantial tradition. The ancient literature on rhetoric includes works by Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian. The subject was treated extensively by Renaissance scholars such as Erasmus and Juan Luis Vives, George Puttenham and Thomas Wilson. Its modern apostles, on the whole less eminent, are numerous. Mr. Farnsworth, however, is unusual in focusing on techniques rather than articulating a general plea for expressive poise. Just thought it might be of interest to people on this board. :001_smile: Hmmm ... I was planning to order a copy, but no one seems to have it. :confused: It's listed at Amazon as being published Nov. 1, 2010, but they're not selling it except from third-party sellers ... I'm confused ... ~Laura

My sister-in-law grew up in China and is currently writing a book about that (quite different) experience. She has a lot of great insights into the good & bad of the Chinese educational system. She was born the year they started the one-child policy (1979 or so). She noticed that there are a lot of memoirs by Chinese people who came of age during the Cultural Revolution, but none covering the more recent period. Anyway, one thing she is bitter about (and jealous of my boys) is the freedom to pursue one's interests and passions. For example, at an early age she was chosen to study law, and was given absolutely no opportunity to study calculus, even though she enjoyed math and was one of the top math students. Now as a 32-year-old living in LA, she is discovering a consuming passion for creating art. About the difference in classrooms: we had some friends from France who returned to France because kids there show more respect for teachers. They couldn't stand the classrooms here. And I'll share some NYT articles that made a deep impression on me (apologies if they've been shared already; I haven't read the whole thread): Indian teachers hired in CT excerpt: In India, Ms. Tallur was revered. When she entered her classroom, 70 students would rise, stand by their desks, and greet her in unison. “In India a teacher is next to God,” she explained, noting the contrast in behavior. Now after a year of teaching at Harding [High School] in an international program, Ms. Tallur has become used to less respect. She is no longer surprised by profanity in the hallways and students talking out of turn in the classroom. Oh, I can't find the other article. It ran a few months ago and profiled quite a few of the growing number of Chinese *undergraduates* at U.S. universities and their adjustment to the quite different lifestyle of the typical American student. Some of the Chinese students profiled have moved off-campus and live together in apartments to avoid the drinking scene and cook their own food, and devote more time to their studies. I guess they've made their own compromise (as do U.S. students, of course) -- combining the freedom to choose their own courses with the more studious lifestyle they prefer.

WTMers in the San Francisco Bay Area should look into these guys: QuantumCamp They are fantastic. They are also realizing that homeschoolers are the perfect fit for their exploration-based classes (of course, b&m-schooled kids find their summer or after-school classes a wonderful, vastly different, stimulating experience). My son is taking chemistry at QuantumCamp right now. Two of his friends, who *hated* biology last year done from a dry textbook, consider their QC chemistry class their favorite class this year. What's *not* to like about messing about with chemicals and seeing what happens? Also, their facilities are a few feet from the Berkeley BART station. Super convenient, for anyone thinking about this. OK, they're not cheap, but it's high quality, run by scientists who have a passion to make kids excited about science and who've made this their full-time jobs, and it's worth it to me to see the absolute joy in these kids as they discover and learn. I think the author of the "Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture," Robert Bruce Thompson, has lamented the demise of the chemistry set. Yes, here's a video of him talking about the unfortunate demise of the chemistry set. Also, in the article posted above, one of the photos' captions quotes a Nobel laureate saying that over half of the Nobel laureates he knows became interested in science through fireworks ;-) ~Laura

Congratulations, Terri! My "baby" (although he's taller than me :glare:) is 13 and got 225 ... CR 67, M 80, W 78. He was jazzed to see the 80 on math :D He thinks the CR reading passages are super-boring, but I see we have some work to do. Plenty of time, though, which is nice. I won't even bother him about the "boring" CR stuff for a year or two. Yes, I imagine that's true ... well, we'll leave that for another day :-) Here's the interesting bit ... my older son (15) is in ps now and we're still waiting for his scores. I *know* they won't be anywhere near his younger brother's scores, although he's a bright kid and doing well at ps (and finding out that he's *near* the top of the heap, unlike when he was at home -- in homeschool he was always in the bottom half of the class, haha ...). BTW we had no luck calling the College Board this morning (using the same number posted above, which I got from a yahoo group); then I left for a class and came home to find the scores had come in the mail :001_smile: Whew! It's nice to finally have the scores. Now to see what older ds gets ...:001_unsure: ~Laura

:iagree: Good points (in your whole post), Gwen. My husband still finds it amusing that his astrophysics master's degree from Princeton (in Latin, to boot!) is an M.A., not an M.S., but apparently Princeton offers only M.A.s -- so as Gwen says, it isn't as if he chose the "easier" option. ~Laura ETA: I found this info at Princeton's site, and it not only confirms that Princeton gives only B.A.s (which they call A.B.s) except for engineering B.S. degrees, but also has interesting information about classical language requirements :-) About Princeton: A brief history of Princeton degrees • In addition to the bachelor of arts degree, several other bachelor degrees have been offered at the University over the years, according to "A Princeton Companion": bachelor of laws from 1847 to 1852; bachelor of science from 1873 to 1930; bachelor of letters from 1904 to 1918; and bachelor of science in engineering since 1921. • The law degree was awarded to seven people who completed a law course started during the college's centennial. • The offering of a bachelor of science degree coincided with the expansion of the college's science curriculum. Candidates for this degree were required at entrance to be proficient in Latin, but not Greek; both languages were required for the bachelor of arts. Some students pursued the bachelor of science degree to escape Greek rather than to pursue science. • The bachelor of letters degree was intended to distinguish students who wanted to take a humanistic program without Greek from those who were pursuing science. The Litt. B. was eliminated when Greek was dropped as an entrance requirement for the A.B. • In 2002, 886 students earned bachelor of arts degrees and 202 earned bachelor of science in engineering degrees.

Not Beth, but we also had a great experience with TPS English 2 last year. Here's the link to the course description for English 2. Yes, literature as well as writing, and a lot of feedback on writing. We've had Mrs Ives for Writer's Workshop, Mrs Neuman for English 1, and Miss Shearon for English 2. All highly recommended. Right now my son has English 3 (Narnia) with Mrs Richards and loves it. ~Laura