If the time-switching thing doesn't work, and she wants something independent, give Life of Fred a try. It's a great math program, and specifically designed to be done independently, and is definitely NOT workbooky! My husband and I are both math people (he is a mathematics full professor at an eastern university, and I have tutored there) and we really love Life of Fred. It doesn't work for everyone (you really do have to work the problems before peeking at the answers, and not just zoom through the books like a story, and it's not for people who find reading to be difficult) but if it fits your style, it's also very inexpensive, and the company is great about stuff like free shipping and contacting the author for help! Jen http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/

My kids are using Noeo, so they're using their standard lab report sheets-- the 7YO has to draw a picture, describe what he did, and state why he thinks it happened. The 10YO has to list an experiment title, what is already known about the topic, the hypothesis, materials used, procedure, data and observations, and conclusions; that is also on a "form." During the second half of the year, I will require my 10YO to use that form as a template to write a properly formatted formal lab report as is done in a working science lab, just as he would have to in high school, college, or the real world, just so he can see the correlation between the form he is using and the real-world format.

Put a heavy adult in the middle of a large trampoline. Have kids roll different size balls past you and past your "gravity well." Discuss how you are now like a singularity forming a black hole in the trampoline, and show how gravity is something that doesn't so much pull objects toward it, but bends the paths of other objects by altering the shape of space. Followup reading and videos for this one would be Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, and videos from the "How the Universe Works" series. Post your favorite "Back Yard Science" experiments that you have come up with here! Jen http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/

Sound Conductivity Through Water (Great one to do in the local pool while all the PS kids are still in school). Have either two kids or you and your kid start close together. On the count of three, duck under the water, and one of you yell. When you come up for air, the other signals whether they heard the noise. Move back, repeat (it might be good to have two repetitions at each distance). Continue backing up incrementally until you are at opposite sides of the pool. Can you hear someone yell from the far side of the pool? How is this possible? Water is an excellent conductor of sound waves. Branch off of here with some good reading on submarines, and marine animals that depend upon underwater sound communication. Post your favorite "back yard" experiment that you have come up with!

I assist-- my sons hate the constant cutting and stuff, so I do the prep work by pre-cutting everything and having it ready to go; we use it with History Odyssey. They like the games and the information. FYLI VASTLY prefer the download/pdf editions to attempting to photocopy all those pages!! It is so easy to print that stuff out as needed! I find the photocopying to be such a hassle. Jen

Starting with Algebra, check out LoF's home companion books for additional problems. Unless your child really equires a drill & kill approach (and not very many do; it's a "school" method that we all just got used to) it should be plenty. For more drill if needed, try Khan Academy. Jen

:iagree: :iagree: When done correctly and with diligence, Life of Fred is a thorough program that focuses on depth and application outside of just how to use it in the math book. It's a great program that will leave your DC well set up in math.

LOL I realized I'd only answered half of your question, but it looks as if someone else came in and did it well :). If your DC has already mastered fractions, decimals, and percents, as well as add/sub/mult/div through long division, you should comfortably be able to step into the pre-algebra book! In other words, I agree with Wapiti! Have fun with Fred! Jen

I wouldn't classify any of LoF as busywork; he doesn't give an excessive number of problems (we love LoF in our house; but many on this board complain that there aren't enough problems). They're mostly applied problems; the author doesn't do rote 'do 50 of these' problems. There might be 3-7 problems in a chapter, then 10 problems for an exam after every 5 chapters. Expect LoF fractions to take about 112 weeks or so if done carefully rather than being blown through. I'm budgeting about 10-12 weeks for Decimals and percents, then we'll move into Pre-Algebra I w/ Biology. Good luck! Jen

No, that's not what I was intending to convey. It's just that it's so very easy to read all of the reviews on here and start curriculum hopping to the most popular thing, and start losing perspective. What's important is NOT what everyone talks about the most, because some folks get so excited about a particular program that start to treat it almost like a religion, and you have to step back from the evangelism a bit and ask yourself, "Okay, great, this worked WONDERFULLY well for that family, but does that really mean it isn't okay if it isn't working for my family?" No; it IS okay if it isn't working for your family. The other people here are 'just folks' just like you and I; we all bring particular strengths to the table, and you should trust yourself rather than trusting what you read on the message boards if something is not working. (just as, it doesn't take being any type of professional to be a successful homeschool parent). I also didn't say that the individual parent can't determine for THEMSELVES what works for them; but when they start making statements about the global value or pedagogy of a program, then yes, background does come somewhat into play. If you aren't a mathematician, you can critique whether the program is working well for your family and you can state clearly why or why not; but statements about the quality of the mathematics should probably be taken with a grain of salt. I can still evaluate whether I'm happy with a particular history program for my kids. I can post about whether I'm happy with it and whether we seem to be getting results and whether they like it or not, and give reasons why. I cannot (with validity) post about whether it is a quality history program in a global sense, because I don't really have any qualifications on which to evaluate a history program in a larger sense-- none of my or my husband's degrees are in history. I know the basics, but I'm not an expert in the details of the middle ages, so without fact-checking every detail, someone could put some misinformation in there, and I'd never know it. I am not an expert. And that's okay :) I can still homeschool quite competently, and so can you. The above paragraph in no way slams homeschoolers, or me, or you. It's an acknowledgement that everyone has strengths and limitations. If I go to the orchestra, even with my musical background, I can state whether or not I enjoyed the performance. However, it would be beyond the pale for me, as a non-professional and non-peer of the professionals on the stage, to state categorically whether they were 'any good' or not. I have years of musical training-- and yet, I am humble enough to understand that I am not qualified to judge a true musician at their craft. Hopefully, that was more clear. There is a difference between evaluating whether something works for you, and holding yourself up as someone qualified to judge the overall worthiness of a program for everyone. Just as when dealing with a sick kid or one who "just isn't right," I always advise parents to trust their guts. We're all smarter than we give ourselves credit for when it comes to our own kids! The problem that I stated in the first paragraph is twofold; one, you ignore the signals from your own children and your own intuition in order to please the masses on message boards who you don't really even know, which is just nuts. Two, you curriculum hop, which just confuses your child and impedes progress, unless you are doing it for carefully thought out reasons (such as loss of progress, mismatch with your child, or major conflict with content, among others). But curriculum hopping just because something sounds cooler on the message boards is one thing we should be encouraging each other to avoid when possible, for the sake of our kids. (there see, I even managed to bring it back around to the main topic of the OP :D ). Hopefully that is more clear. Jen

We are relative newbies, but here is ours http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/2011/05/our-first-year-in-review.html?spref=fb

I was really nervous about Rosetta Stone-- I found it terrific to use to brush up on my German after a few years of disuse; it did what "school" (high school and college and some living in Germany) German never did for me; it got me "thinking" in German instead of "translating" everything. But how would it do for two kids who never spoke German before, ages 7 & 10? I held my breath and tried it. In the first moments, my 10YO said, "But Mom, how do I know what anything means?" I told him to be patient, pay attention, and let the program work; it would not work if I taught it over him. By the end of the first lesson, he came out smiling, pointed at his brother eating a snack, and said, "Der Junge isst!" When his brother ran away, he pointed again and said, "Er rennt!" When I grabbed a glass of water, he grinned and said, "Die Frau trinkt!" In other words, he got it! He did the first worksheet the next day, spelling the words correctly (many of the words are elsewhere on the worksheet though) and even correctly matched up articles and nouns, made plurals correctly, and correctly matched nouns and verb conjugations-- after the first day. A lot of people say RS doesn't "do a complete job" and maybe there are better programs out there somewhere-- certainly there are cheaper ones! But at least for now, I'm sold. If my kids learn to think in the language, get a grasp on the grammar as they obviously already are from day one, then I figure they'll learn what they can from 5 levels of RS, conversing with native speakers when they get the chance, and travel when they can. I think RS will have given them a nice underlying structure through which to pick up more language, even after just one or two levels. Your mileage may vary! Good luck! Jen http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/

Definitely go with what works for YOUR child. Different brains are wired differently. Also, different parents judge curricula by different criteria, and although there ARE lots of good suggestions on this board, suggesting something loudly and often does not make a person's suggestions accurate :) Not even being a long-term homeschooler with lots of kids makes a person an authority on a subject :). All parents bring personal backgrounds, biases, fears, etc into what they are doing, hard as we try not to do so. If something is not working for your daughter, then it is NOT a good program for your daughter, no matter how many people love it. Math Mammoth is also an outstanding program. If you want to (you do NOT have to!) try Singapore later on, when your daughter is more mature, and when the colorfulness has been toned down in the upper levels, you can. There are other math programs for upper levels that *I* know of that *I* know are very strong and thorough; I have a math background and my husband is a university professor and he also has read the program and endorses it. However there are parents here with no math credentials other than homeschooling who will swear up and down that is "not a real curriculum," "too light," "My kid read the book in an afternoon," "Only algorithms," "doesn't explain anything," etc etc etc. I think we'll follow our own advice on this one :). Use your gut, and do what's right for your daughter-- the wisdom of the masses is not always what works for you! The other programs you mentioned are perfectly strong options and will do very well. Good luck! Jen http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/

We just started HS in Feb, and I realized how dreadful my kids' (DS10, heading into 5th and DS7, heading into 3rd) writing, copy accuracy, and listening skills really are. We started in WWE1 with no worries. We are doing each lesson in one day, 4 days per week; and taking the occasional day off. So far the kids are enjoying it- and building their reading lists. We will taper off the rate in time to 2 days per lesson when they get harder, and drop off to 4 days per lesson when we get to their natural level. It is already improving their skills, and that is what this whole effort is all about. Jen http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/

I keep tests low-key, and even back when my kids were in PS I taught them that tests are not the evil empire; they are a form of communication between the student and teacher, so that if you haven't done it yet, you can let your teacher know either how well you are doing, or what you don't understand yet. And the teacher lets you know, from all her chatter and assignments, which points she thought were important-- so that in the future, you can learn better how to figure out how she or he teaches and what to fiocus on. My kids don't get why other kids get so worked up about a simple communication process, and generally do well on tests now. The phrase, "But it's a TEST" just makes no sense to them-- to them, test now sounds like opportunity. Jen http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/

It is a standalone program if done correctly and if your child has the pre-requisites (has mastered addition/subtraction/multiplication/division through long division). If your child reads it through in one night, they probably won't get a deep mastery of the topic. If they read it carefully and work through the problems independently and only then read through the solutions, and take the bridge tests, and really only proceed after scoring at least 90% on each, they should have an outstanding grasp of the material. My 10YO did Fractions in about 10-12 weeks with some time outs to shore up his long division. He now has an outstanding understanding of fractions. The plan for this year is Decimals and Percents and both Pre-Algebra books; possibly starting Algebra toasted the end of 5th grade. We'll see-- we may take a break and play with a probability unit in there for fun :). There is no monster rush to start algebra super early. Jen

Here's another approach. There is no "limit" to school subjects out there; we don't run out of things to study. Work at a normal pace. Throw out the notion of grades. It's an artificial device used by schools to track students' progress through school by age and groups. Grade designations are kind of irrelevant to homeschoolers-- I mean, don't we progress in a subject until a student has mastered the material, and then move on? In school, kids get moved along whether they have mastered the material or not, unless they outright fail everything. In homeschool, each subject is handled individually, and a student might be in "grade" 7 in reading, "grade" 9 in math, "grade" 8 in writing, "grade" 9 in the history cycle, etc. So being in "grade" 9 is kind of irrelevant. I mean, if the parents were to want such a child to continue learning until their writing caught up, they could add an additional year to the curriculum very easily-- there are about 500 disciplines in science, and as many in math, so adding one more year of science in math is pretty easy to do :). Adding a specialized focus of study in history to get some depth (say, a semester on WWII, and a semester on the Elizabethan Age) would do no harm either. Just an idea-- don't be afraid to move beyond the notion of being in a 'grade.' Let the idea percolate about just going to school until your daughter is simply done, and ready to graduate. Then for college purposes, call the last four years of her education her high school years. Jen http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/

That's the nice thing about Khan Academy; it IS fun for the kids, and they can earn badges for their accomplishments. And since they can rewind and rewatch videos at their own speed without having to ask an adult to repeat themselves, it's really low-stress for the kiddo. I would agree there is no need for an 8-hour school day, but depending on the state, she probably does have to report a certain amount of "attendance" completed by a certain time, though there is still certainly time to take some time off if there is willingness to school over the summer. I pulled my boys at the end of February. We did NOT 'deschool' in the sense of taking a complete time-out; however I did figure out what interested them the most (Greeks and Romans, and mythology) and we spent 12 or so weeks focusing on Ancient Greece and Rome and Mythology, and Space science (since the constellations are tied to mythology); our reading and literature were tied in to our history and science lessons. We did manage a lot of field trips, and I insisted that physical education was a huge part of home school (including free play time). Latin tied in nicely with learning about Ancient Rome, and both boys loved starting a new math program after some time with Khan Academy. It worked beautifully, and both boys loved their new homeschool world. Now with the new school year starting, we're ready to start with the Ancients, a new math year, and a new science, grammar, etc. I would suggest focusing on something your son really enjoys as a kind of unit study to get started, and work in some khan if you wish, because it's both useful and enjoyable-- and as the other posters said, work in some fun time. Maybe school 4 days a week, and use the extra day to show the added benefits of HS, like getting to the pool, an amusement park, or somewhere-- you'll be surprised how much gets done in a month! And remember, YOU are not tied to the school calendar! You are not only the new teacher, but the principal, superintendent, and school board! Good luck! Jen http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/

Just let him try some activities. It will tell him when he's achieved mastery, and then suggest where he should go from there. If it's an activity that he has already mastered, he will "master" it very quickly-- just 10 problems and move on if he gets them all correct. If he cannot do that, then that's one he should spend some time working on. If he gets really stuck, go backwards up the chart until he's set to go. 4th grade-- have him do addition 3 and see how he does. Try him out on each of those: add, sub, mult, and division 3. Try fractions. The "web" of topics is graphical, and from how he does with those topics, you will easily see what he needs to work on-- you can accomplish this in one sit-down session easily. Remember, he can click on "watch a video" any time that he needs extra help without breaking his streak of correct answers. Good luck! Jen

To answer the original poster's question, I think both the content and reading level is fine for an average to above average 7YO. I have been reading it ahead of giving it to my 7YO, and have read most of the volume through already. It was written specifically with that age demographic in mind. I will let my 7YO read the chapters to himself but I will have already read them, and we will discuss them afterward as he does the exercises for History Odyssey. He won't be reading them in a vacuum. We'll also be doing activities together and reading related books. But reading is one thing he can do by himself as I either eat breakfast or do something with his older brother or stash in a load of wash before we sit down to finish his history lesson together. Good luck! Jen

http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/2011/03/hillandale-farm-school-philosophy.html'>http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/2011/03/hillandale-farm-school-philosophy.html'>http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/2011/03/hillandale-farm-school-philosophy.html'>http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/2011/03/hillandale-farm-school-philosophy.html Near the top is a list of what we hope to accomplish by home schooling; at the bottom of this particular post is our philosophy statement. In between is a description of how we arrived at both. Soon (tonight? Next week?) I'll be posting our upcoming year's goals more specifically (ie our curriculum picks). My most recent post was what we accomplished for our fledgeling school year. I love seeing what everyone else is doing-- although I always feel confident about where we are heading (I don't like curriculum hopping; we change when something is broken) I try to keep an open mind when I see a good idea from someone else, and there are always the uncharted waters ahead to look forward to! Jen http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/

Wow, you're right, the bio situation is different from Chem; the Noeo prices are better. The shipping isn't an issue; Amazon shipping is free for any order over $25 though (for everyone, at least in the US; you don't need Prime or anything). I'm surprised there is such a difference in the books! Thanks for the heads-up! We are planning to do Bio next year after chem this year, so that's good to know. Jen

Maybe the chem books are different from the bio books, but I saved a ton by ordering the books from Amazon-- more than enough to offset the extra discount on the young explorers kit in buying the entire bundle. I think there are places to buy those, too, if you plan on sticking with Noeo, so you can just buy the whole set ahead of time.

If he loves to read real books and do experiments, he will probably want to stab himself in the eye with a fork rather than do Nancy Larson. I know, that is sacrilege to some, but only to those who love very strictly scripted lessons. It may be different at the higher levels, but not from the samples I see compared to the level 1 I own. We got it just so I could compare what we are doing to this program everyone touts to highly, and my son (7) hates the very sight of it now. The books are VERY small and short compared to what he normally reads, and he has a reading disability (formally diagnosed, not self-diagnosed or Mommy diagnosed) by multiple specialists with a known underlying cause. He hates the scripted lessons and thinks the worksheets are dumb. In the first unit, the "labs" consist of looking at and discussing pictures, and then making a mural. Not very lab-ish, even for first grade. Now, toward the middle and end, there is an investigation with x-rays that is pretty cool, and ladybugs and butterflies to raise, which is pretty fun. I would look at letting him follow the schedule and read the books recommended for Noeo level 1, and then do the experiments when you have time. It isn't designed to take long or be too parent intensive-- about twice a week for 40 minutes (including his self-reading time) or 4 times a week for 20 minutes should do it. Good luck! Jen

--To prevent this tragedy VERY easily, sign up for the free service dropbox. It installs a folder named dropbox on your computer, and you save things like your textbooks in it (up to about 2GB is free, I think; above that and you pay per month. But the free amount holds quite a bit). You can put subfolders inside the dropbox folder if you wish. Now here is the beauty part. You then put dropbox on all of your computers-- laptop, desktop, ipod, etc. It will copy the files to any computer you wish (and you can use or update them offline when you don't have an internet connection; it will update the other computers when connected again to the internet). If you are on a computer that is not yours, you can still access your files by entering your dropbox account via the internet. The choice of whether to install the dropbox folder on a computer or not is always yours. When publishers only price them $1-2 less than the hard copy, it makes no sense to restrict the resale; they should be discounted significantly. It should resell if you uninstall it completely-- how is that different from a book, exactly? Jen http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/