My 12YO does level 2 completely independently (so far ancient and medieval is nearly completely done); I just check his work now and then to see that the standards stay high, and to discuss the reading and writing assignments. He chatters all the time about history, so I know his retention is good-- he loves the program. My 9YO is doing level 1 of a completely different time period, and he needs me for every step; he is not independent yet, so his work is very time intensive. One advantage of doing things this way is that the older child is developing the study skills intended by the older program-- HO is written directly to the student, not to the parent, at level 2, so it is meant to be used by the student. Note also though, that if some part is not working for you (like history pockets) you can simply not do that part. If it's "too much," then just cross something off! The police won't come and arrest you, really :) You are in charge, not the curriculum!

She could certainly "tag along," but the assigned readings might be a bit much unless you did them as read-alouds, at which point your older might not get the assigned study skills from them (I am thinking Canturbury Tales, Beowulf). You could always get her her own books to read from the library on the appropriate topics.

I love Regentrude's comment. Giftedness is a category of special education-- people who are gifted are not just "brighter,' they process information differently, and they often know they are somehow different from the rest of the group, just like other special needs kids usually know. When my younger son, who is 2E, received his genetic diagnosis, he was relieved to know that his sense of being "different" in the negative ways he experiences was not his fault. As we began to remove his roadblocks and he began to realize his potential, he began to see his differences toward the other end of the spectrum as well, as his brother has always noticed in himself. For any kid, feeling different carries the chance of feeling somehow bad or wrong, and knowing there is a concrete reason for it may often come as a relief. I am a big proponent of giving kids an honest, accurate reason for their feelings, and not hiding information about them. Yes, it needs to be explained correctly; you want kids to understand that they process things differently, not that they are better than anyone else, to avoid "big head syndrome." :) But I would never hide the fact of giftedness from my kids-- I would just be clear about what it means and what it implies. Chances are good that it will bring relief, both for the kid to know he has done nothing wrong, and that there ARE others like him out there.

It will be above your kids' heads, but YOU might actually enjoy Usborne Easy German. It alternates pages with some pretty clear explanations of what is going on with the grammar, and a cute, quick to understand story written in German (vocabulary off to one side, but you can get a lot of it by looking at the pictures as you read). Much of it is conversational dialogue. The grammar pages will explicate the differences, when they are important, between written and spoken German. The story is kind of cutesy/silly for an adult, but if you actually practice it daily (translating it first, then reading it out loud in German and kind of translating in your head as you go, then just trying to read in German and "think it in German" and get the meaning "in German" in your head, it really does build your confidence on a lot of vocabulary, common conversation, and grammatical concepts (different cases, pronouns, ordinary conversational stuff, etc). I would peg it as a good start for kids at around high ability age 9 or so; more ready for it at around age 11 or 12. But it is not a bad book for an adult trying to learn the basics, either!

I will second what may posters who have followed up to my prior post have said: Math Mammoth is a great program for parents who do not feel confident in their abilities to teach math, and it is NOT just a program for strong math students. In fact, I only hesitated to recommend Singapore to you because of your reticence about your mathematical abilities. I believe you could do it, but it won't do any good unless YOU fully bought into the idea ;D. For the parent who needs more hand-holding, I would definitely go with Math Mammoth, and and you could feel reassured that your child will end up very well prepared. One thing about review: Math Mammoth provides way more problems than you'll ever need (and links to many drill websites on top of that, including worksheet generators for math facts, too!). If your child needs review periodically, then simply skip a certain amount of problems, but don't discard the worksheets-- keep them in a file folder by test section or in a binder, or whatever works for you, and the following week or two weeks later or whatever schedule works best for your child (I don't recommend waiting too long to get a review session to help memories form longer term) schedule one math day per week or a math time later in the day separate from your main lesson, to pull those old worksheets and work on the problems you previously left blank. Be smart about which problems you leave blank; don't just do the first 2/3 and leave the last 1/3 empty, unless this is a deliberate strategy on your part. Many math programs design their exercises to start with easy problems and build to more difficult problems as the exercise progresses. If you do this, you will be saving the most difficult problems for review-- or if you don't review, to never even be attempted! Try doing all the odd-numbered problems, or skipping every third problem, or some such scheme. Built in review :) For more "fun," try math games-- break out the manipulatives (see the "Math by the Seat of your Pants" entry on my blog); try Life of Fred as a supplement; try Penrose the Mathematical Cat or the Number Devil; Try Sir Cumference; try the numerical mind benders from the Critical Thinking Company (I forget what they are called just now); watch Vi Hart's videos on YouTube; read the Murderous Maths books (buy used paperbacks from Amazon). Sometimes, straightforward, clear, and to the point, are just what Mom and kiddo need, in the main program, and Math Mammoth will give you that.

Write to the author, Maria Miller. Those problems *were* developed somewhere, and you just missed it (perhaps in an earlier level?). Maria is awesome and she will certainly help. I'm not sure why you think you can't do the yearly curriculum? Do you mean that you are just playing catch-up in a few areas to get up to where you think he ought to be first? Because the light blue series has excellent incremental, step-by-step handholding instruction each step of the way!

All the time. In the rare event of a problem (lower price found elsewhere, a subscription hiccup, etc) they respond pretty quickly. They offer pretty reputable stuff most of the time.

Three advantages of Math Mammoth: 1) Buy it once digitally, use it for both of your kids with the publisher's blessing. 2) It periodically goes on seriously discounted sales from the publisher, so you can get levels 1-6 all at once pretty cheap. 3) The author is super nice and very dedicated to teaching math, so if you have a question or problem, help is just some email away. Maria really is great. In general, Math Mammoth is a very well-written program that will explain things logically and clearly and provide plenty of practice. It is quite solid. Do NOT feel obligated to make your kids do every last problem. If skipping problems bothers you, for the sake of your children, please do not choose MM. It has enough problems that you can pick and choose. Singapore-- what can I say about Singapore? It is a spectacular program. If you tend to "get" math yourself, you can really soar with it. If you're okay with math, or think of math in terms of how you were taught it, you can still do well, but PLEASE buy either the Home Instructor's Guides, or get the college textbook on how to teach math, also sold on the Singapore website, so that you understand how to teach it the "Singapore Way." Otherwise you will miss some of the magic of the program. Singapore is manipulative-rich, when taught correctly. It is introduced in the concrete first, then pictorally, and then finally in the abstract (mathematical notation). Kids taught in this manner will really get math and numerical literacy. The mental math techniques are a particular strong suit, as is the emphasis on algebraic thinking and geometry relatively early on. Do not feel as if you need every possible workbook they offer. The text and workbook are fine. If more challenge is needed, I recommend the IP Book. If more word problems are needed, you can try the extra word problems book. If you like the mental math and want more there, try the math sprints. I think you'd be mad to put them all in; it would be overkill. Start with just the text and workbook (and appropriate teaching guide) and build from there depending upon how your child is responding, if Singapore is where you decide to go. We love Life of Fred, too :)

K-1 means it can be used in K or 1st grade. How long it takes depends upon the exercise and your kid. I used a higher level book in that series when my boys were around 9/10 years old (younger is still wading through it) and I just tore out one page per day and let them do the front and back. Some sheets took 10 minutes, others took 5. My younger son goes through them much more quickly than the older one did, particularly for the visual/spatial tasks. I find it is a quick, fun way to start off the school day, or when transitioning from reading first thing in the morning into pencil and paper work. If you have not seen them before, it is interesting; each section starts off very, very easy (as in, Why am I doing this??? easy) but then each section builds in a very logical fashion to the desired skill by the end of the section. For example, you might start with describing a shape in a box-- ie, there is a square in the center of the box. It will ramp up slowly-- there is a shaded square in the center of the box; there is a black triangle to the right of the shaded square in the box; there is an open circle under the black triangle to the right of the shaded square in the center of the box etc until the end when you either have to draw what the directions describe, or write a set of directions to describe what is in the picture, then see if a second party can replicate the picture from your directions. The lesson is in giving clear, concise directions for a more complex task. That example is from the older book, but that gives you an idea of how it builds up to the skill from what seems like a very dull beginning.

I would go level 2 bio and pik up a few of the level 1 books or supplementary books from the library.

Singapore is LOADED with manipulatives-- there is really no supplementation to it necessary. To quote the Facebook meme . . .if you aren't introducing the concepts with concrete manipulatives before breaking out the textbooks, "You're doing it wrong."

Singapore Math actually sells a college textbook on teaching elementary math using their materials. It is now being used as an elementary ed text in many US universities. It's listed on the Singaporemath.com site for $29. http://www.singaporemath.com/Elementary_Mathematics_for_Teachers_p/emft.htm There is a second one, for elementary geometry, same price, or a package deal that includes both books plus a sampling of the US Edition books and workbooks (I think 3A-6A with one workbook included, 5A, I believe) for around $89. The textbook description says that it includes teaching activities to be used to present the ideas in a concrete fashion and explanations for how to teach each concept. I have not read the book for myself to see what the quality is, but I thought I would toss it out there in case it might be helpful to anybody, since it is sold on the SIngapore site, and the price is pretty reasonable.

I love that Evernote can search even my hand-written notes in the add-on notebook now!

We do very few (almost no) DVD programs, but DS9 LOVES Andrew day with IEW SWI-A :D.

I have the Fellowes comb binder, and I love it! The books lie perfectly flat, and it is super easy to open them back up again to add pages when you need to. My particular model can make a book of up to 150 pages, though I have combs down to as small as 1/4" as well. It is super easy to use, and I have had no trouble with books falling apart or combs ripping open-- and my boys simply TOUCH a 3-ring binder and pages seem to explode in all directions, so they are not gentle with them. I do laminate my covers to make them a little more durable (and the binder has no difficulty punching holes through card stock or laminated pages, either). The only reason a comb-bound book would fail to lie flat would be if you stuffed it too full; they are designed to lie flat or even be flipped around, just like a spiral-bound book. Locally, our Staples and Office Max are far more expensive to do the binding for you if you create many books. I saw mine on sale on Amazon, and our local Staples store honored the price, so I picked it up for $64, for the model that binds 150 pages and cuts 12 at a time (I think it retails normally at $100). I get the combs at Staples, BJ's, or on Amazon, wherever the price is best. I just put together a 137 sheet book, and it took me about five minutes to do all of the cover laminating, hole punching and assembling, possibly less than that, and I expect to use this book for a little more than a year.

My son was in fourth grade before these reversals disappeared entirely. I did not make an issue out of it, but I also did not let it pass-- we used a green dot system. If he reversed a letter or switched letter or digit order, he got a green dot underneath, and had to fix it before he could move forward to the next thing. It was low-key, not embarrassing or punitive, and the dots gave me a quick- tally record of his improvement. We also switched to cursive handwriting, because you cannot switch or reverse letters in cursive, which made him more successful in the short term. He is still 9 years old and the reversals have nearly disappeared, although I can see him pause to think sometimes before writing (he also has dysgraphia, but I think I am seeing him catch himself about to reverse). That said, if your Mom-gut says there is an issue, ask questions! I always advocate asking questions now instead of waiting for later if your gut tells you to.

Rose, yes, I do think the Economics book could be skipped. It was not even an original part of the series, but added in later, particularly if you are using other materials as well. I think Fred could be used successfully many different ways; the only one that kills me is when I read of people who let their kid speed through it and also claim it was light on math/explanations. I have said elsewhere, I could read the best math book in the world in a week and get nothing much out of it by reading it that fast.

Typically, colleges will disregard any math taken before 9th grade, but it's okay! If he's ready for algebra now, let him go for it! As a PP noted, you will not run out of math that he can take by 12th grade :). You will cross that bridge when he gets there, but trust me, my husband is a math professor, and with a PhD in mathematics from Cornell, there are many math courses he has still never even taken in his lifetime! Your son cannot run out of options. And it's okay to take courses beyond algebra/geometry/algebra II/trig & analysis (now rebranded as "pre-calculus") and/or calc I in high school! You can take linear algebra, second or third years of calculus, numerical analysis, statistics, and more! Let him enjoy it if that is how he has fun :)

Our state requires attendance be reported, but does not require any specific amount of school be completed. Most people in our state do report at least 180 days though, as we do not want homeschooling to come up on anybody's radar as needing supervision, and most of us do way more than 180 days anyway. I always advocate reporting truthfully, whether you are under or over-- though the state itself makes this difficult, since you have to report it by July 31 for the period ending July 31 and the website can be finicky enough to use that you need to report well ahead of time in case there are problems :). It would make more sense to report by July 31 for the period ending June 30, or to report by Aug 30 for the period ending July 31! In any case, back to the question at hand, we generally manage to put in in between 200 and 220 days. This year we were just a hair under, at 198, due to some illnesses and additional travel that I chose not to count as school, though I could well have counted as educational field trips (that would have added 20 more days right there, and it was indeed educational, as we explored abandoned 800 year old ruins, hiked through geological wonders and examined them, and more). We also school all year round. If we finish something, we just move on to the next thing. There is no danger of getting lazy-- for us, school is not about checking off the appropriate boxes, it's about exploring this amazing universe we live in! There will not be time enough in a million years to learn even a thimbleful about it by graduation time as it is! Right now my heart is breaking knowing that we are soon leaving behind our current history and science studies and moving on to the next topics, because honestly, we could spend years on just these ideas. However, in logic stage, that would be a disservice to my kids, since they were in public school for most of grammar stage and never got a strong "survey" before. If we lay a good foundation now, we can specialize more in rhetoric stage :). We take an occasional day off to recharge, go on a field trip, see a movie, enjoy just being outdoors, or have a spontaneous play date. Every six-eight weeks, we take a week off to let information sink in better. Once in a while, we take two or three weeks to run away on a trip. Usually by the end of a vacation week, the kids are more than ready to hit the books again-- there is a huge world to explore out there!

Our LG front-loader has no mold, does not leak or cause stains, and gets even our grubbiest, stinkiest stuff super clean. I have brought things home from my MIL's (new top-loader) and had to re-wash them, fearing the worst, but nope ... Stinks and stains came right out. You do want to take the time to ensure these puppies are properly balanced though. Once you have that, you're home free.

How old? Our six month old LG front loader is an absolute dream. Clothes are super clean, no front-loader mildew, the gasket is a wide-open channel, so no gunk build-up, huge capacity, great controls.

My 9 and 12 YO are really enjoying The Red Badge of Courage (Civil War). The use of language is very vivid, and DS9 loves recognizing so many vocabulary words from Caesar's English! Crane makes you virtually able to feel the smoke of the battlefield in your throat, and go dizzy from the dichotomy of the violence of the battle punctuated by the absurd sense that the sun was shining obliviously onward.

It isn't Notebooking, it's just journaling, but I put Day One on both boys' iPads for keeping track of good thoughts, favorite lines from books, important ideas they learned that day, and other "starred thoughts." I have a dysgraphic kid, and the dictation feature works very well. I also like the ability to view the entries in a list or diary format.

Both Galore Park programs, or the younger one?

We started homeschooling when the boys were halfway through 2nd and 4th grade. My then 2nd grader started Prima Latina the following fall (would have been 3rd grade). Big brother started in The Big Book of Lively Latin. I was more pleased with Lively Latin, though I think it would have been tough for third grade. We took a short breather at the end of that year and did Minimus, all together, and that was a lot of fun. Big brother moved into the Big Book of Lively Latin II and younger (now 9) has moved into Lively Latin I after PL. I am very happy with the BBLL, both books I and II. PL was a nice gentle introduction to Latin, even though I usually bend more toward secular offerings. It was more an introduction to vocabulary than working on much grammar, and it did not overwhelm with the pace at all. If I were doing it again, I would probably still go to BBLL, but I would also have to look at the two series put out by Galore Park. One of them is aimed at younger kids, and I might start there instead of PL. It might or might not bear out, but if the quality is similar to the science books, it should be a slightly humorous but high quality offering.