Look up the book "What a Plant Knows" by Daniel Chamowitz. It is fascinating; it compares much of the physiology of plants to human senses and systems. We know plants don't have eyes, but they do detect and respond to light; many respond to touch in fascinating ways. Plants have sensors in their root tips that orient to gravity in much the same way as the otoliths in our ears do! There is much more. He teaches a course by the same name in Coursera that I found fabulous; it might be hard for a middle schooler to stay riveted to, but you could use the relatively slim book to teach a really fabulous botany course.

I have a kid who started in level 2 Primary Math (US Edition) and is now in level 7 Discovering Math. I think the word problem development is brilliant. I was pretty skeptical of the bar models at first, but we stuck with them anyway, because I didn't want to sabotage the program if I was going to bother using it, and I'm glad I did :) Now that he is in the pre-algebra/algebra/early geometry level, the bar models have translated very smoothly into translating real problems into algebraic equations to be solved in a more traditional manner. He can often just jump right to the linear equation at this point (he is in 7B) but in the rare case that he gets stuck, he can just draw a quick bar model, and that model leads directly to the linear equation-- then he can go back to the word problem and see where he missed the logic that he should have seen in the first place. DH is a math professor, and his jaw sometimes drops at the sophistication of the problems this 10YO is able to do thanks to the logical development DS has gone through with Singapore-- for math is really about developing logic, not just arriving at correct answers. We like the correct answers, too, but DH would say that 90% of math is really about the logic, not the answers, and Singapore does a beautiful job of showing the kids the logical connections driving the math so that they can put things together in novel situations, not just assemble algorithmic problems that match examples they have done before (we love this about Life of Fred as well). So those bar models the kids are drawing in the 2nd and 3rd grade are really boxy representations of linear equations-- they just won't realize it for a few years. By the time they get to level 7, the jump to a linear equation is not large at all! Hope that makes sense! Jen

You certainly don't need Physics in terms of mathematical preparation (that is the simple answer), but I will note that it makes a delightful early Physics book! I had DS10 use it this year (he is in Singapore DM7 and working through Decimals and Percents in the Fred series) as part of his Physics year. I had an inexpensive spring scale sitting around, and DS could not wait to grab it and see if he could replicate what Fred was trying to do in his office in many chapters, to work out the coefficients of static and kinetic friction of different objects in different situations. Then he wanted to find out about the force needed to move different objects, and then how inclined planes, pulleys, and levers changed the required force (he combined the spring scale with boards, pulleys, his K'Nex Education set, and a Thames and Kosmos Physics set as he read through Fred Physics). He wanted to guess for himself whether adding pulleys to a system would be additive or multiplicative, and "think like Fred" to then build a system to test it out with the spring scale. In Fred Physics, there is lots of practice with very easy algebraic manipulations around the force equation, and other equations in physics that look exactly like it but with different variables (such as spring elasticity). So there will be math, including lots of practice dealing with fractions and solving simple equations in one variable, including having to set up the equation from a real world problem in the first place. Because the basic equation is essentially the same in several systems in the simplified version the student can focus on how to manipulate the equation to isolate the needed variables and become very comfortable with that process in a variety of different situations, scoring gains in both math and Physics. I didn't plan to use the book, but we happened to hit our physics year, and for that reason, I'm not sorry I used it. Then again, I love cross-curricular stuff, and driving home to my kids that stuff you learn should never be in isolated little "subject boxes" thought of only in that one class, but seen as connected to everything else, so Fred Physics was a home run for us :) Others do feel differently. In the real world of course, this is how math is really done, outside the box of "just math." Math is done in conjunction with physics, biology, medicine, navigation, speech, cancer research, music, art, finance, sales, bridge building, quilting, farming, and more . . . so it makes sense to study it in these ways as well, even at the earliest levels. DS 13 went well past this point before the Physics book ever existed. It is his principal (and nearly only) program with only a few minor intrusions here and there, and well into Advanced Algebra, he is doing very well (and his test scores were off the high end of the testing range in math in all areas). So it's unnecessary, but delightful.

MM and SM are both very strong. I found, as a person with a strong math background, that SM taught math and number relationships very differently from how I learned them; if I was going to teach SM, the last thing I would want to do is teach it without the textbook, because that is where I see how they are explaining it. I did get some TM's/HIG's used, read through them, and didn't find I needed them. I found the concrete/pictorial/abstract pretty easy to implement on my own using the text and workbook. I did not feel my son needed the CWP-- he would have gone nuts from still more problems (not a big believer in endless repetition here) though we did use the IP books for extra challenge and extending the ideas. MM is a solid program, but it was a bit repetitive and moved too slowly for DS; he hated having things fed to him one step at a time and preferred the quicker pace of SM. I did not find the textbooks to be a ripoff at all; keep in mind that they are pretty densely written-- they might have one page of material, but you are taking away from that about four to five pages of material that would have been spelled out step by step in a traditional text, and they thankfully avoid beating the "now do this" problems to death, even if they still have too many problems between the text and workbook (US Edition) and all the reviews embedded in the text. Any extra material they included would have just been filler, explaining more incrementally, or tossing in extra problems they didn't need like other books. The material included is wonderful, when you really dig in and explore with the hands-on component of the program and extrapolate that into discussion and discovery into the abstract as the program is intended to do. With a kid gifted in math, we still worked pretty quickly, but he developed a pretty advanced conceptual framework for his mathematical skill set with Singapore for his grade level thanks to all the stuff you can dig out of that "thin" book! It is perhaps not the best fit for those who want everything spelled out on the page for them. The books are written under the assumption that a classroom teacher is fleshing out the material quite a lot. It isn't too hard to see how and where to do that, but it takes some effort.

Update: Oyster does have a fair number of books many of us tend to use for history and/or literature by late elementary/early logic stage. I didn't browse too carefully for early elementary, but you can check the website; there is a page there for browsing the children's selection. The deal with Oyster is this: You pay $10/month, and for that, you get unlimited access to their library of books. You can only have 10 at a time for OFFLINE reading, but there are no due dates or fees, and you can see the other books online, or change them out any time you want. You can mark books for reading later, too. You do need a US based email address and credit card, but you are allowed to use it outside of the US, according to their website. You download the app to any Apple, android, or Kindle Fire device, but you sign up on the Oyster website, which is where you enter your credit card information. You can sign up for a free month to start (you still have to enter credit card info though). It looks awesome to me, and I think looking at the books DH and I will read and that we will read for homeschooling, it will save us money in the long run, even after using the library (ha ha esp with cutting down on late fees at the library. It's still another option for accessing a library of books-- browse the website to see if the selection appeals to you. Watching the Facebook group, they seem to keep adding publishers (they recently added Simon & Schuster).

addressing at least one of your questions, the Magic Lens levels ditch the cute story lines. They also go deeper and add more traditional diagramming, along with plenty of punctuation. The conversational approach and course design remain. Hope that helps! Jen

Has anyone used Oyster yet? It is like Netflix for books-- you pay $10/month and can read their library of books on your Apple or Android device. But I don't know whether there are kid titles included.

Another place that will just ship you a library for the year is BookShark. I'm not sure how perfectly classical it is in terms of grammar/logic/rhetoric developmental stages, but in the brief glance I had of it, it was very literature rich. It did follow history cycles (though remember that is not specifically classical; that is just SWB's implementation of classical-- people get confused about that :) ). I saw that it will allow some customization of choosing your child's math and spelling levels as well, including switching to Singapore math of your desired level, a nice option in a boxed curriculum, and it even provides a 4-day per week schedule for those who like their planning done. It includes a huge number of read aloud books and self-reading for literature and pegged to history for the year. If you can get it shipped to you overseas, it might be a workable solution, though they are not super cheap (but all-inclusive).

I think you said the key things here. 1. You recently moved. It may not seem like it, but the chaos of moving may have affected your daughter (even just knowing a move was coming, even to a new house up the street, would have stressed my kids). 2. No, you won't make some terrible choice and mess her up for life. If you run with Singapore 6A/6B and it's too easy, accelerate through it. Supplement with a computer programming course such as Super Scratch Programming Adventure or a logic course. As I explained above, there are many really good choices available. There are a few doozies, but most of those recommended in this thread are pretty good. 3. It is not uncommon for even math-adept kids to occasionally plateau before taking off again, that's okay (if unnerving). Just stay patient and stay the course, reviewing as needed. Some kids tank at this plateau, others when they get bored. She may even have insight herself. Good luck!

I would give her another year in Singapore before moving on up to a preAlgebra program, and I would not put this kid in AoPS, or at least, not yet; I think it would lead to frustration. You could also give Fred a try and see how it goes. For what it's worth, my older DS has used Fred as a standalone program since Fractions (he is now in Advanced Algebra, the same thing as Algebra 2) and we find it quite rigorous, when properly used. I have tutored many university students through calculus, and DH is a math professor at a research university, and we are more than happy with how well he is doing in math, and his deep understanding of what he is learning (and no, we are not teaching him-- Fred is; he works on it independently). The key is that he has to read it with pencil and paper at hand, and actually work through the math examples embedded in the text as he encounters them (or on a second reading; sometimes the story is so fun he reads the chapter quickly first for fun :) ). He doesn't just nod and say, "Okay, got it" even though he's good at math :). He has helped many a kiddo who is using a traditional text such as Foerster's or Lial's, and explained a concept where the other student was stuck, and been able to do so very clearly, and spotted problems where the student was stuck in a problem-- so as to Fred only being a supplement, myth busted. If it is passing muster with my math professor DH, it should pass muster with most homeschool moms for rigor. Now fit for an individual kid is another matter; Fred may or may not work for a given student. They have a generous return policy, so give it a whirl. I would start with Fractions and work on up; a kid who has done Singapore through 5B will encounter both new and comfortable material in that book as well as in Decimals and Percents. There are other excellent options out there as well. AoPS works well for some kids, but not others. Being super tough to handle does not mean it's the best game in town. Sometimes straightforward is just what the student needs. Tobey and Slater, a very inexpensive option (order older editions such as the cover with the backpack from Amazon) is written in clear, understandable English without being inaccurate or misleading, using correct terminology that will translate well to upper level courses (a beef I have against Teaching Textbooks). T&S uses clear, well-explained examples that come right from the explanations, followed by samples with solutions for the student to try, followed by exercises that build gradually in difficulty (solutions in the back). Each section has a mini-quiz, and the chapters have chapter tests and cumulative quizzes (answers in the back, and each question references the section it is testing, so if the student gets some wrong, you can quickly see if one section in particular needs review, or the student can look up the problem examples and check out how to solve the problem). The layout is clear and easy on the eyes, with judicious use of color and white space. This book will be easy for the student to follow or Mom and Dad to read along and help follow without need for a teacher Guide. In the middle of that road you have Math in Focus, a Singapore-similar approach, and then there are traditional texts such as Lial's, Foerster's, Jacobs, and Dolciani. The one that works will depend on how comfortable you are with the subject material, and whether your student simply needs another year of review before regaining her confidence, or if she is going to continue needing some hand-holding. My advice? Give her that final year of Singapore level 6; don't push her ahead unless she really shows signs of boredom. Don't make a decision about what lies down the road ahead until near the end of that effort and you see how she responds. In the meantime, get your hands on Fred Fractions and decide for yourself (people in this forum will have plenty of opinions, but you decide. Is Fred good enough for a standalone? Absolutely-- my son and the other kids mentioned elsewhere are not being taught by space aliens :) And his standardized test scores from year to year are advancing at a rate that seems to back up our observations of his achievement) But the bigger part is that only you can figure out whether Fred actually fits your student. With the money back guarantee, it's a pretty easy trial-- just make sure she really reads the book like a mathematician and doesn't zoom through claiming that it's easy-- done correctly, Fred is not easy, even for an advanced, gifted student. Once that year is done, you can look at the other options. My guess is that given her current reaction, AoPS is an unlikely fit-- but a lot can change in a year. You may be able to borrow a copy and give her a shot at it at that point. Math in Focus is expensive, but gets really good reviews. My younger son is loving Singapore Discovering Mathematics, and the TM contains teaching notes and worked out solutions. It is, however, a step up in difficulty from the PM series of books-- in classical terms, it definitely ramps up from grammar stage to logic stage thinking. The Tobey and Slater books could be worked independently or with a parent, the writing is so clear; they may not be as difficult as some other books in terms of the "academic rigor" discussed so often on the boards, but the student will understand the material and gain confidence, a bonus over using any text that leaves the student and parent twisting in the wind, no matter how well regarded. Good luck to you and your daughter. I think you have a good year to decide, and usually, there are many good paths you can take, not just one. These decisions always feel tremendously monumental, but usually there are several good choices that will work out just fine in the end.

Maybe this will help; below I have not included a complete S&S, but a quick list of what I see as what has been included as new or expanded between Town and Voyage levels. I want to do similar thing between Magic Lens levels 1 & 2, but I haven't yet gotten around to it. It's as accurate as I could make it between the kids yelling, "MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM!" :) Hopefully this will make it make sense when I say there is new material, but it is incremental. For those who have not seen Magic Lens, FYI, ML is when traditional diagramming also begins. That is, however, when you lose the fun storyline, and the vocabulary becomes extremely dry. Word Within the Word (the vocab book) had great content, but deathly delivery. Jen Parts of Speech: Nouns-- possessive Pronouns-- indefinite, matching antecedent in number Adjectives-- articles are definite or indefinite, and their own category, LV's are used to help adjectives modify pronouns, but not needed to help adjectives modify nouns, a discussion on avoiding wordiness with unnecessary adjectives Adverbs-- generally expanded Verbs-- active and passive voice, progressive tenses, subjunctive mood, subject/verb agreement Prepositions-- word list expanded a little Conjunctions-- correlatives added Interjection-- no major changes Punctuating the parts of speech Parts of a sentence Subject--mostly unchanged Predicate--simple predicate, complete predicate DO, IO, SC, using Subj/Obj pronouns correctly-- all expanded Punctuating parts of a sentence Phrases Prep Phrases-- expanded explanation of how they act like adjectives and adverbs Appositive Phrases-- I don't think this changed much Verbals-- Gerunds and participles mostly repeat; infinitives--how they behave as nouns, adjectives, & adverbs, expanded section on subject/verb agreement when the two are interrupted by a phrase Clauses Generally expanded Punctuation-- comma and semicolon expanded Phrases vs clauses-- expanded

I just did a side by side of Town and Voyage. Besides the obvious new material in the vocabulary books, just in the grammar books, I found quite a bit of new and expanded material within each section on careful comparison between the two levels, so no, Voyage is not a simple repeat of Town. It is somewhat incremental, but if you wanted to take a year off and then go to Magic Lens 1 (where traditional diagramming begins) you could do so; if you have a child who needs yearly repetition, there is deeper information in Voyage than there was in Town. Looking in the 2012 edition of Voyage, there is also quite a lot of punctuation instruction in the volume.

I gave up matching up my kids pretty early on. DS13 is wrapping up History Odyssey 2 Early Modern; DS10 is wrapping up History Odyssey 2 Ancients right now. I was particularly grateful for that decision this year, when DS13 got a concussion and was on total cognitive rest for six weeks. DS10 was still motoring along, so they would have been out of sync anyway, unless I had either declared a vacation, and then had to figure out what to do to keep an active 10YO quiet enough not to harm his brother in this brutal winter while keeping my 13YO from going crazy on cognitive rest (he could really do NOTHING without getting dizzy, but that didn't mean he wasn't alert and BORED) so keeping the 10YO going with school was the better option. We started out doing the same history period/era just at different levels, and that had its advantages, but now they accomplish their school work at such different paces, it is better to have them working independently from one another. They missed it at first, but honestly DS13 seems to be entering a stage where he wants a little space right now anyway. The nice thing about HO is that the older can work on it pretty independently. I do sit with him a couple of times a week and chat about what he is learning and reading, just to keep it alive.

At the risk of resurrecting a really old thread, I will point out that at least at the first Magic Lens level, my son learned plenty of punctuation. With each clause and phrase came the rules of punctuation for that construct. After just one level of ML, he can confidently explain-- even a year later-- when to use a colon, a semicolon, a comma, or nothing at all. He knows when to hyphenate (sparingly, far more sparingly than his mother does in forum posts LOL) and can look at a sentence and decide whether to concatenate two sentences for better flow, or when to break them up into two separate sentences, because the practice books spend some time discussing this idea. ML levels also do some light diagramming (though we have done other diagramming on our own). We did not use the writing component of the program, so I cannot comment on that (he started the year in WWS and finished with IEW). Now my big dilemma is trying to find-- anywhere-- the S&S that will tell me if it is worth purchasing ML 3. Someone gave me (what a saint) her unused ML level 2, with vocabulary and poetics intact. It is tempting to ease up on my budget and just use that, but since that will be his last year in logic stage and I plan for next year to be his final year of formal grammar instruction, I am wondering if we might be leaving out anything important. I think probably not, but it would be nice to see a scope and sequence-- I didn't see one on their support forum and I'm wondering why it has to be a state secret. Does anybody have ML3 and can share?

Before spending money on BA, download a sample and make sure the comic book format works for her. It would have been fine for one of mine, but the kiddo I had who was young enough to use it took one look, his eyes crossed, and he cried. He hates the format of comic books! We stuck with Singapore and Fred.

I found good punctuation stuff in Magic Lens I. DS (then 12) could explain very well by the end of the practice book how to punctuate the different types of phrases and clauses correctly, which is where most people get tripped up. We had already covered quotations and easier stuff through WWE and Bravewriter. He was solid enough that we skipped grammar this year and will move into Magic Lens 3 next year. I do think that by skipping the practice book, you skip quite a bit of the program. It does start to feel incremental at times, but it does build over time, and very intentionally-- with good stuff. My kids both know more about handling appositives correctly than most people around them, and they are aces on subject vs object pronouns in tricky situations, thanks to MCT and its discussion format. But different people want different things from a grammar program. MCT develops not only a good 'ear' for grammar, but an understanding of how the parts of the sentence support and impact one another, so that the student can tweak a sentence without unbalancing it. Throughout the practice books, the author asks the student to play with practice sentences-- how would things change if you dropped this word/lost the alliteration/reorganized the structure/etc? Sometimes the sentence improves! It is great for the students to hear those changes. This program, Discovery of Deduction, and a few others are 'graded' by discussion with the parent by program design, and I think it has resulted in a much deeper learning experience, even for my highly independent learner. Instead of being wrong (which has its place at times) he can work his way through to understanding rather than right/wrong/please the teacher. I live that aspect as well. Just a few things to think about-- again, not everyone wants this from a grammar program (and it may be less important to you if you are not using any other components).

Make sure you do Fred with pencil and paper in your hand as you read; do the math in the chapters as you read it (or on a second pass) rather than just doing the cities, and take the time to do all of the cities, and the problems in the Home Companion book as well, if you have it. Fred is very complete, particularly if you take it slowly enough to take it all in (one mistake I see from some folks who post is blasting through it too fast-- my own son will sometimes tell me something wasn't in there, but when I tell him to go back through with a pencil in his hand, he comes back and says, "Oh, guess what, it was in there." My husband is a math professor and he loves the Fred books he has seen our son working through so far (currently Advanced Algebra, with a preview of the trig book). The problems in Fred will make you think and ensure you have digested the material enough to understand it, rather than simply repeating an example seen earlier in the book, because the problems, as you know, are not just like an example. If you were not already doing math in public school, I'd say sure, go ahead and get another math text if you can pick one up cheap, just so you are exposed to more traditionally formatted problems and other language used to set up problems; however, since you already have that, I'm not sure Saxon would be the best use of your time. Done carefully, with attention to detail, Fred should be fine for you. In your shoes, I'd try to do either statistics, probability, or number theory (AoPS, Art of Problem Solving has Probability and Number Theory books that get good reviews, although I have not seen them myself) or learn a programming language, rather than adding yet another math book. Good luck to you!

You are not trying to jump to the end product of writing all in one step here. When starting IEW, you are building a toolbox of techniques, and they WILL sound awkward at first. Have faith; you are not teaching your child to write awkward sentences; this is not the end-goal of the program. There is an assignment in which the students must rid the paper of all possible instances of passive voice, using a different technique each time. The result is a bit forced, of course! But in the course of writing the assignment, the student will learn many creative ways of rewording passive voice, and will build a substantial toolbox for doing so, which will really come in handy later when it is needed for a specific situation-- too many writers only know one or two ways to do this! In most assignments, the student is required to use an adverb, a strong adjective, and replace all the banned words with strong verbs. Again, some of the sentences may sound forced, but the student is strengthening his vocabulary and learning to become familiar with a wide variety of adverbs, adjectives, and more forceful verbs that many writers overlook from disuse, so that they are available when needed later in more natural writing situations. The goal is not to make students write a paragraph forevermore into the future where every paragraph written has x number of adverbs and y number of adjectives. The student is practicing techniques, much as the karate student practices his reverse punch over and over again, so that it becomes fluid, and available when actually needed, so that use will not be difficult and flow of movement broken. Avoid the error of over-grading these early papers. It's easy to expect too much from an assignment; ask yourself what the specific purpose of this assignment is. If the purpose of this writing assignment is to continue to replace the weak word 'walked' and to practice correctly punctuating dialogue, don't go bananas about word flow and content and use of examples from text; that will come in a later assignment. Grade what was assigned so that your student knows what to expect.

I would find out from her why she doesn't want to skip up. Her answer may surprise you, and maybe you can work with her on it, or have a better reason to honor her decision for a year or so. But at her age, she may have some "interesting" ideas informing her opinion on the grade skip that may mean parental intervention on the decision is the way to go; she sounds quite intelligent and self-aware, but still very young. As to the homeschooling-- it is very true that homeschooling is a very personal decision and it is not for everyone! Please don't feel a need to defend a reason to stay in school/not homeschool, as every family as the right to self-determine on that one, and it does sound as if your school is being very flexible and proactive about meeting your daughter's needs-- wonderful! Don't ever use social needs as a reason to not homeschool, however, unless you are extremely rural :D. Both of my sons have about quadruple the number of friends now as homeschoolers than they ever did when they were in the public schools, and our flexible schedule means we can spend more time with them as well, even though we are a very academically oriented family-- we probably spend more hours each week on school related activity than many, at least as many seem to self-report. Homeschooling is the best social decision we ever made for our kids! Best of luck no matter how you choose to resolve your situation :D

I would use something like Math Mammoth, but introduce manipulatives to explain each concept. Make sure to not overdo the repetition-- it's not necessary to complete ever exercise on the page, but only do it until the concept is understood, then move on. You can get each concept's book for about $5-- multiplication, division, fractions, etc, to address specific areas, or a grade level. You can often make your own manipulatives or use household items-- dimes, pennies, m&m,s etc; I have a weakness for both C-rods and fraction stacks. I also love a lap-sized white board to make erasing and trying again easier and non-traumatic for a kid who is struggling. writing on them is sometimes just physically easier, and you can sometimes find them for as little as $1 at sales. For free, there is Khan Academy, which will automatically tune itself to where she needs help and adjust the level. If there is a hate-hate relationship with math, it may be worth trying something like Fred; it doesn't work for all kids, but if she finds it motivating, great! Around the level of 'Honey,' the book starts telling kids, "Okay, you need all your X7 facts in order to read the next chapter; you have to earn it" or something to that effect. In my house, I told my kiddo he had to follow the rules the book laid down, so he was really motivated to work on those facts so he could get that next chapter! He could not wait to see what Fred was going to do next! Good luck! Jen

I kind of got a giggle when I spotted the statement on their own website: "Regular training with Lumosity will result in better performance in Lumosity."

The Expanded Edition replaces the regular version-- it is the old Beginning Algebra plus the Home companion in one volume, so you don't have to jump back and forth, and has all the problems together in each section, according to the website. You may or may not need the Zillions of Problems book at all-- it is optional. If you need more practice, get it later (shipping is free anyway, so there is no advantage to getting it now). You could also use Khan Academy or Alcumus for free extra problems if you wish. Hope that helps! Jen

DNA Kit: Science Wiz makes a very affordable, but "everything works" kit that leads up to an includes a DNA extraction. You can't beat it for $20. You will have to supply alcohol-- they suggest denatured alcohol, but if you stick 70% alcohol in the freezer it will work just fine. Anatomy: dissecting kits from HomeScience tools are not expensive and work great. We did cow eyeballs, a sheep heart and brain. The little books that came along with them were fine, and the dissections were fascinating. Doing some owl pellets is fun for skeleton identification. Muscle lab-- my favorite muscle lab: Get a chicken wing from the grocery store and bleach it (safety) then rinse. Carefully dissect away the skin. Observe how between the shoulder and elbow, there are two main muscle groups. There are also two main muscle groups between the elbow and wrist. Now, with the fingers of one hand (or one helper) pin the wing to the dissecting tray or board, and tug on one set of muscles between the shoulder and elbow and watch what happens (wing extends). Now tug the opposite muscle group in that same area. (wing retracts). (Or the other way around). (Demonstrates: Muscles work in opposing pairs; muscles never "push;" they only pull). Can repeat with muscle groups between elbow and wrist-- just hold down the wing at the elbow instead of the shoulder (or both). Now carefully dissect away the muscle dissue, and examine the attachment sites of the ligaments and tendons as you go-- what do you think the function of each must be? Where to ligaments attach? Where do tendons attach? Now, with a pair of very (very) sharp, heavy-duty scissors, take one bone and cut it in the center and examine it. What do you see? Cut a slice from the end. How is it different from the center cross-section? If you have one handy, examine a cross-section of each segment of bone under a microscope (the Brock works well for this; specimens do not need to be transparent). Why are different areas of bone structured differently? Draw and label everything, including the different areas of bone. Skeleton: we loved the X-ray kit from HomeScience Tools. You can build your own X-Ray man-- a quick squirt of water will make those x-rays stick to a window, and if you are lucky enough to have a deck slider or other tall window, you can assemble the entire person from the x-ray kit. Take sticky notes and make them label the bones on the X-Ray. No big window? Do it on the floor. If you have a good microscope, you can make your own protozoan culture-- grab some grass, leaves, twigs, yeast (only a very small bit of yeast or it will take over) and put it in some water in a small cup for three days or so. Then sample it and see what you find. Sample it from different parts of the cup-- there may well be different protozoans in different parts of the cup! An inexpensive bottle of Proto-slo from Carolina Biologicals will slow the critters down (just a drop) enough to look at them, and eosin blue or something like that will make them easier to spot (read chemical safety sheets before using and use gloves). Inexpensive books to guide your way: Second-hand Prentice Hall Science Explorer books on Amazon. Don't worry about the latest edition; I have done side-by-side comparisons, and they often just rearrange the sections. Alternatively, you could try the Creek Edge Press task Cards to use as a kind of spine. I picked 20 topics to cover for the year (we do science every other week, but very in-depth, alternating it with history) and we covered one topic per year for our bio year. They look really cheesy in the packaging, but don't overlook the Ein-O models-- they come in a little box with really tacky looking marketing on the package. Inside, however, are some terrific models-- there is one for teeth, the brain, the heart, and plant and animal cells. I really like the teeth and brain models. I wish they would do a spine of the same quality. Making a spine out of gummys and the round hard pasta is cute, but a real model would be awesome. Another fantastic source to check out, in addition to HomeScience Tools is Nature-watch.com. They have some fantastically well-done kits that just work and have great scientific value for the money (we did the low-cost water test kit this summer and it was fantastic). What I loved about this kit was that it contained enough reagents for the kids to develop and ask some type of actual question-- not a canned demonstration or just carry out a procedure-- about a body of water or an area with several bodies of water, do some research, make a hypothesis, then actually do the testing they needed to do to produce results to analyze in order to evaluate their hypothesis. They might ask whether moving a bike/pedestrian path in the local park (if such a project is underway) has affected water quality before and after the project has happened, including different time intervals before and after. If there is an outlet pipe into a pond or lake, they could measure the water data at different distances from that pipe and see how large an area the outflow seems to affect. I am sure kids could come up with some interesting questions-- changing seasons, different water sources, you name it. The kit checks for pH, nitrogen, e. coli, O2 and bioavailable O2, and turbidity among other measures. The company has many other interesting kits as well. I know this does not sound like anatomy (but they may have anatomy sources); I included it because I know this particular kit is good for "the process of science" missing in so many courses, as it is not merely a canned lab, if the students are encouraged to develop a question to ask using the sets of reagents over and over, and doing additional research. Hope that helps! I need to update it with some more of my more recent stuff that I am using this year, but my pinterest board for some of this stuff is here: http://www.pinterest.com/nittanyj/homeschool-resources/

I just get quizzed endlessly about homeschooling! Most people I meet are completely fascinated by it-- even the "socialization" questions I get at parties are mostly true curiosity and benign, with only about 1-2% actually being the hostile sort. Sometimes I kind of wish I could talk about something else LOL. My holiday bane is my annual Christmas Virus, which currently has me trapped upstairs in my room, trying not to give it to anybody else! I think that during the holidays, people think, "Well, I know I'm sick, but we only have this party once per year, I should go." No, you really shouldn't. Because then *I* catch your cold, no matter how much sanitizer or soap I use, an long after you have recovered, *I* end up freaking SICK for the holidays yet again. LOL there's my "bah, humbug" :D Just had to get that off my chest! Now if I could just get this ELEPHANT off my chest so I could breathe . . .

I already posted this on FB, forgive me . . . DS10, at breakfast, out of the blue: You know, EVERYBODY talks about Caligula and Nero all the time! People should really think more about the Aztec priests!! (later, at dinner) DH: So, tell me about those Aztec priests! DS10, with a dour expression: Dad, you do NOT want to talk about Aztec priests during dinner, trust me.