She scored above the median score for high school juniors in all 3 sections. if the PSAT scores correlated SAT scores she would have been eligible for Duke TIP . I am pretty sure she had a number in her head that she wanted to achieve. She is not interested in any of the summer talent options because she has a very rigorous summer dance schedule that only gives us about 2 weeks per year of being out of the studio. *I* am very happy with her results and I am pretty sure she has grown volumes in the last two months as a student and would score even better now. I have tried to tell her that. After talking with her today, I think that she feels like she needs some reassurance that she is not behind her public school peers in academic ability. All of the honors level 8th graders took the PSAT in our public school this year. So she set the bar high for the PSAT and then did not meet her own high expectations. She seems to be much better today. She is a very regimented, and highly motivated kid who puts a lot of pressure on herself to always be right. The irony is that the pressure she puts on herself often causes her to fall short of her expectations. She is like her own little Greek tragedy. All in all, I think this was a good experience for her. Sometimes it is good to have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back to work. And learning this lesson now when none of this matters will be beneficial in the future when those numbers may matter.

I have a kid who cried quite a bit last night because she did not feel her scores were "good enough". *I* am about to say she cannot take the SAT this spring because of this reaction.She is begging to take it. But this is her personality, she is insanely motivated. Anyway...I am pleased with her scores, it is the first test she has ever taken that has not been administered at the kitchen table by me. She is historically a poor test taker and I have repeated ad nauseum that test scores do not determine anything but an ability to take a test. Anyway, what would you consider the range of average scores for an 8th grader?

As the mother of a dancer, I know how hard it is to take the rejection and what herculean force it requires to pick yourself up and keep trying. Kudos to your son for such resilience.

noredink.com ?

My 8th grader is also using Lukeion and it has been very good. Her study skills and grammar have greatly improved as a result. She is a much better student as a result of this class.

Lukeion...it is rigorous but very good.

I am going to take a stab at this... In one syllable words that end in y, the y makes a long /i/ sound. So you have to use an ey at the end of those words to get the /ee/ sound. Two syllable words that end in y make the /ee/ sound naturally. Edited to add, I cannot count this morning. Holy cow!!! Hehe! Good thing humility is a familiar flavor for me.

Barton fixed this for my son and the boy I tutor. I do not like the BeD method because it has been my experience that kids with dyslexia have a hard time remembering right from left and get confused. The balloons/pigs method with Barton worked much better. Ohh for the Barton videos...I have a friend that plays solitaire while she watches them. I like to take the laptop around the house with me and clean while I watch them. I am not above scrubbing a tub while watching a Barton video on a laptop sitting on the commode.

My dd said the proctor had no idea what she was doing. I wrote the hs testing code on the back of her ID in sharpie. So when that section came up, she chimed in with the number so the proctor did not have to find it. So in that batch all of the homeschoolers had the right code. I was concerned about that before she went in to take the test.

My daughter also said it was easier than the practice tests. She knows she missed a few, but she is an 8th grader and this was her first run and the first time she has ever taken a test that was not proctored by me at our kitchen table. I was impressed with her ease and the lack of nervousness about all of it. We will see in mid-December. How do we see scores online? She gave them an email address, will we get an email?

We completed 2 years of Compass Classroom Latin and it in NO way compares to Lukeion. Lukeion is much more rigorous and my kid is learning so much more than she ever did in Visual Latin. Lukeion is no joke and I feel confident it will prepare her for the Latin AP exam in a few years.

My daughter is taking Intro to Rhetoric, Alg1, and Am. Lit with The Well Trained Mind Academy and Latin1 with Lukeion. She really likes her Alg1 teacher but she is also finishing a year of Tablet Class Algebra1 so this is all review and it is not challenging yet. But I hope that it will get more challenging for her as they move out of basic math review. I want her to be really solid on her Alg1 skills which is why we are doing 2 different curricula spanning 2 years. She hated writing with a passion before this Intro to Rhetoric class. But she adores the teacher and the personal feedback on her writing is detailed and very very helpful. I have a kid who is seeking old grammar and writing books to work on the areas of her writing that need improvement!!! That never would have happened with me. She is definitely more confident and improving vastly. Plus she has made a friend in the class who is also taking another class with her, they meet and study together online. The Lit class I am not as crazy about. The instructor does not seem to be as well prepared as the others and his class is mostly lectures without much commentary from the students. I wonder about the literary analysis that is going on from straight lectures. The communication on the part of the instructor is not as good as with the other classes. Lukeion is challenging, it is rigorous. We have already had Visual Latin and my daughter is learning so much more via Lukeion. This class will definitely help her English skills and it is just what I wanted. The classes are very competitive and Amy Barr is a great teacher, she is fun but no nonsense. I am very pleased and think it is money well spent.

We went to Math Mammoth and my son loves it. The boredom of MUS was killing both of us. MM moves more quickly and it stays engaging for him. My daughter went to tabletclass and now she is in a Well Trained Mind Academy class.

My daughter is using the Algebra 1 course and does not use a calculator.

My kids are finishing the series this week. They both (13 and 11) love it. My kids are not scared of stuff that they watch, Lord of the Rings pretty much jaded them to blood and gore.

You could always sign her up for a WTM academy class. They do not begin until next week.

My sister is much younger and has recently graduated from college said that the Princeton Review materials were superior to the Barron materials for SAT prep. She also took a PR class and she said it was worth every penny. She says that the SAT is all about knowing HOW to answer the questions and PR is very good at teaching that.

We are signed up for Exp. Writing and Am. Lit. I am so relieved to not be the one who will be correcting mistakes. She hates being wrong and takes it personally. I felt like throwing a huge party when I signed her up for the classes .

We are currently working through VL2...my daughter does not get the basics of the endings as well as she should. In hindsight, I really wish I would have just signed her up for Lukeion. She does know some grammar and that is proving to be helpful in her science course and when we find little blurbs of Latin here and there she can usually decipher the meaning. It is not a strong Latin course if you want your child to really benefit from the usefulness of Latin in regards to helping with English. And there is no way that it would prepare a student for an AP level Latin course. That said, I LOVE the instructor. He is goofy, engaging and when I ask him questions on his facebook page, he responds very quickly. My daughter does not balk at it and somewhat enjoys the program. We have discovered any errors in VL1 and he has always been quick to fix them for us. But that has meant that I have had to download the files again. The quizzes/tests are far too easy IMO. We have Wheelock's and she could not get through the first chapter easily after a year of VL1.

My daughter is currently using Mr. Q's Anatomy and Physiology. She really likes it. She is adding in Khan Academy videos and really enjoying science.

L-theanine and a cup of coffee. Breaks as needed, he rides his bike up and down our hill OR jumping jacks. I tutor a kid who is severe and he has to do jumping jacks.

Considering the confidence my son has gained via Barton and the resale value, I usually am only out $50 per level. I buy them used and resell. When I factor in the actual out of pocket cost, it is cheap. I am a huge fan of Barton, it has made all of the difference in our house. (I should not post before I finish drinking my coffee)

I was referencing the white-washing slavery thread and John's responses. I never got to the attitudes about Native Americans. I have no problem addressing the "noble savage" attitude that I also find nauseating.

Wonder if Holzman considers his revisionist history and disregard for historical accuracy to be "Christian content" that will be left out of Book Shark. I simply cannot bring myself to financially support the Holzmans. And I find it funny that even with their business practices and attitudes about others who believe differently that they would be pandering to them to get a slice of the pie.

We used MUS also. THe Pre-Algebra book in MUS is important because it filled all of the holes that MUS did not fill in the prior levels. Stuff that most curriculums include as they go along. You may want to look at it. My oldest agrees with me that MUS alone did not prepare her for harder math. We played catch up after MUS pre-algebra. I ditched it for my younger more "mathy" kid and we are using math mammoth now.