I had to get out my Fractions book. I went through this with two kids and this didn't bother me so I put it under the lens you suggested: that the author is 'forcing' kids to cheat. We only cover up the answers, so the footnote on the problems page would be visible. If it's not, the child shouldn't feel bad because it was covered. How could dc be responsible for something that s/he couldn't see? I don't see this as an author trying to trick anyone. It's on the page with the questions not with the answers. So I don't see that the student or author made any mistakes. #7, the answer is 9/9. If dc got that, then it's correct. The book reads "8/9 + 1/9 = 9/9 which by General Rule #3 is equal to 1." There is no condemnation or "You should have known." attitude that I can perceive. Then dc gets to learn that 9/9 = 1. I admit that I am not particularly concerned w/"right" and "wrong" answers. If a child puts the answer in an improper fraction, I would remind them to make it a mixed number, but neither of us sees the answer as "wrong." (After all, 9/9 and 1 are the same thing!) :) If your dc is upset by this, I can see why Fred may not be the best choice. I wanted to address your comments because some of us don't get the feeling we're being tricked, just that the author is relaying info in a more imaginative way.

I did not read them, but my 10 yr loved them. You might like Rosemary Sutcliffe's books Black Ships Before Troy (Iliad) and Odysseus' Wanderings (Odyssey).

He's got a beautiful website with even more photos. periodictable.com

Do you have your kids spend a year on "General Science" before HS? If so, how? Do you use a curric (please don't say Apologia!)? What are some good resources? I want to be sure ds is "up to date" with his science if he gets accepted to the magnet/engineering high school (heavy science). Thanks!

We just started CPO Earth Science. I dl the text and lab book. I also am utilizing Janice Van Cleave's Earth Science for Every Kid to fill in where the CPO labs were too much (some of their equipment is very nice and $$). It's been very good so far!

It is word based, but we love Challenge Math by Edward Zaccaro. There is a lot of text before the exercises. Your library might have it and you could try it. It's a big hit here!

Rainbow Resource used to be the cheapest so I always buy from them.

I think we just used the exerpt from the student book and that worked.

We've used it with Horizons for many years. The two complement each other well. We also read math books (Murderous Maths, Numberland, etc.) as well as use Zaccaro's Challenge Math (and others.) It has worked well here!

I am not impressed with it. We're using Core G now. I don't like the CD at all. I'm not thrilled w/International Bible Guide (whatever the title, it's not a hit here.) So we're left w/a reading schedule that is erratic and doesn't tie in well to the history portion. Sorry it's not a more positive review.

I didn't read all responses so forgive if it's a repeat. One child loved Cheerful Cursive. It's a little cutsie, but it worked well w/dd.

I'm not the only one! I bought it with high hopes. I was not impressed with the questions or the stories themselves. It was all fine, but nothing special, imo.

We've played a card game like war. You each have half of the deck and turn over two cards. If working on multiplication the two cards are mutiplied and dc has to give the product of both pairs of cards decide who wins. We like Math U See blocks which are good for working with negative numbers (flip them over) as well as fractions.

There is info on the web about combining the two (or four) world history cores. Since I only have 3 homeschoolers 1st, 4th and 7th, we used Core G for the 7th grader. The 4th grader read some of the books and the 1st grader just sat in for read alouds. I got the SOTW Activity Guide (great resource!) for the younger ones. It has book suggestions for little guys. I also used lapbooks and History Pockets because my younger 2 like activities. I did not over-schedule the youngers. That's important when you have so much from which to choose. Best of luck!

We use a variety of math here. We use a basic curric like Horizons, add in Life of Fred, Challenge Math and living math books like Murderous Maths, Number Devil, etc. We also like brain teasers which is an excellent tool for learning how to problem solve. In general, we'll do Life of Fred religiously and Horizons for practice or for days we don't do Fred (we like to do that together). We'll add in Challenge Math here and there for a few days at a time (as long as it takes to complete a chapter). The only one dd doesn't enjoy doing is Horizons so we don't have any trouble filling 45 minutes or so per day on math because she wants to do it. I don't have a set schedule except that we work until there is a reason to switch (I notice she needs review of a concept, need for change, just got a new living math book/resource, etc.) We do go through each book in order and, often surprisingly, find at the end of the year a lot has been covered and retained. I highly recommend Challenge Math and Life of Fred. Both will introduce high level concepts as well as math application.

I think many of us 'suffer' from this. Just be sure you always wait and see before purchasing. Some curric just don't look as good in the light of day.

I'm so sorry to hear that! We lost our curric for this year in a flood caused by Hurricane Irene. It was so sad to lose all of those SL books, but books can be replaced. I know you'll make it work!

We just started CPO. I downloaded the student book and Investigations (lab) book for free. I am looking for a TM used, but haven't found one that's reasonable (yet). Here is the link for Life Sci, Earth Sci and Physical Sci student book and lab book. I don't know if Astronomy is out there for free. http://www.nhusd.k12.ca.us/node/52#cpo Some folks have gotten a free teacher DVD or CD by contacting their state's sales rep. I think there is a lot of questions/writing at the end of each section. We have been doing most of them orally, but my daughter is a little young for this curric. I was intimidated by the labs and equipment, but they really aren't that challenging. There are several that I needed to find a substitute experiment/activity. I just opened Janice Van Cleave's Earth Science for Every Kid and had my answer. I will probably spend <$50 on lab equipment for Earth Science. If you want the exact products, you can buy them individually, but I can't find the link right now. It's under schoolspecialty.com I think. HTH,

A poster on here reccommended T&K Chem 3000 kit (the one that is $250) and claims that the guide book is great. I have not used it, but thought I'd pass that along as the kit does look fabulous.

We loved info cards at that age. Nat Geo makes some. Each president has a card and some info about him along w/a picture. When you want dc to memorize the presidents, try Yo, Millard Fillmore! Silly cartoon book that doesn't tell you anything about each president, but both of my kids memorized all presidents in about 15 minutes and still remember them (years later.) One of my children is learns visually and the other aurally. HTH,

Do you remember School House Rock? The videos are on youtube and there is a DVD with all the math, history, LA and science ditties. The CD has all of the audio. My kids loved them and remembered how to count by 3s this way (they still sing it!)

We love Zaccaro's books. This site is for MS, but some may be at your dc's level. virtualmathclub.wordpress.com

Janice Van Cleave has Physics for Every Kid which uses household items. I do not think physics has to be expensive. You could try http://thesimplehomeschool.com/subscribers/ms-physics.html Most of the experiments are online plus there are labs. It's about 60 bucks. HTH,

I have some eperience in this area. Since you mentioned AoPS, I wondered if you had read this article "The Calculus Trap." http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?page=calculustrap It changed my view of how to educate my children. Obviously, one needs to learn some math skills in order, but why do we omit statitics and proceed Alg I, Geo, Alg II, Trig, Calc? There are so many other areas of math that many kids truly enjoy. Granted, these might not look as good on your child's transcript. They will be a detour from the standard, widely accepted curriculum, but we've found it to enrich and solidify dc's understanding of so many areas of working with numbers. I wanted to be sure we got operations down, then we started with practical applications. Books like Life of Fred, Challenge Math and even workbooks like Basic Not Boring Middle School Math give the student a reason to use math. I have one child who enjoys applying it within her science experiments. In person or online math clubs give new problems every week and often a spirit of teamwork while trying to solve complex problems. Try reading Flatland when he's a bit older. I haven't used any of the curricu you are for long (we both detested MUS) so I can't offer advice on that, but this is what we did: +Use a solid math base to cover the essentials +Add in lots of supplementary (fun) math activities (Life of Fred, Math Club, etc) +Pause before starting Alg I (we took a few months to work on stats and problem solving) +Begin Alg II right after Alg I (no geometry) +Geometry can be challenging for some kids. Some kids love the rules and solving the puzzle, but if your dc isn't ready, take some time to work on other math areas. +We paused again before going into trig and calc and are using a couple of AoPS books. Don't stress about it! You will find your pace and level together. I did compact units of math and certain times allowed the kids to test ahead. It did take a bit to find our level, but I stopped worrying about moving too fast or too slowly (because we adding so much into our math curric.) Good luck!

I was a bit put off by the CPO lab kit for the classroom. The materials are so nice (and so expensive!!) that I was concerned that I might not be able to re-create good experiments at home. I just went through the Earth Science Investigations book and most of the labs seem easy to put together. I will purchase a few items (like a geobox and maybe density cubes) and have to rig some things (like a stream table), but in general it's really not challenging for *me.* I am omitting a few experiments that seem difficult or expensive to put together. Over all, it seems very simple and not expensive to implement. Another option would be to scrap the Investigations portion and use Janice Van Cleave's Earth Science for Every Kid. I hope this encourages someone!