Wouldn't it be interesting if the tests were time stamped to indicate the time it took but not limited to a set time? You make a great point.

"Old dogs may have trouble with new tricks, but now canine brainiacs can use the laws of physics to master their corner of the universe. Complete with technical illustrations, graphs, and formulas, this book shows dogs how to: Bring down the mailman with the correct ratio of stealth and brute force Poop strategically—indoors and out—by understanding variable-mass systems Open any cupboard with Newton's First Law Play fetch by calculating velocity and maximum range Catch squirrels by accounting for friction, weight, and air resistance And much, much more! With this hilariously prescriptive how-to, pooches of every size and temperament will learn to chase cars—and catch them!" Gotta love it! Now, I am curious and will have to see if writers also address cats, parakeets, gerbils....

Scary, but true, we have 24+ (3-4 foot across) shelves of print reference materials (Dictionaries, Foreign Language Dictionaries, Almanacs, Atlas, Field Guides, Timelines...) DH would love to digitize it all, but one week of power/phone outage with an ice storm put the issue to rest. I do purge anything that we don't refer to at least once a year.

I was hoping you would post a bit more. While I am generally a "live with the terms of the deal" sort, a 20pt miss for a teen seemed like such a hard break. Fair enough, but hard. Glad to hear he got something in addition to the can do it experience.

I think Physics names things after people, just that Physics does a better job of giving equal billing to the people and the principle.

I bolded to demonstrate, note part of the parlance is at the very least a reference to what the principle will address. Then look at Chemistry, it will be Name's law, _____' theorem without specificity of the what in relation to the who. Chemistry doesn't tend to say the law or theorem of what. Many Chemistry texts for example would not say "Boyle's law of inverse proportionality" as a whole phrase. They would simply say "Boyle's law" Note this quote: Equation (5.3) is known as Charle's and Gay-Lussac's law, or simply Charle's law, which states that the volume of a fixed amount of gas maintained at contant pressure is directly proportional to the absolute temperature of the gas." (p. 179 Chang's Chemistry 9th ed). Or note this: "Hess's Law can be stated as follows: When reactants are converted to products, the change in enthalpy is the same whether the reaction takes place in one step or a series of steps. (Chang's Chemistry 9th page 248). These examples are typed as the appear. Physics laws have just that wee bit more specificity of what the law/theorem addresses as part of the parlance. "Bohr's Radius" hints to orbits/circles, "Bohr's Law" is wide open. I just found long ago it helped me to follow the Physics naming process in Chemistry. That is why I asked. I wondered if anyone had noticed the trend or if it was just something that struck me.

I am going to suggest something different. Why not take a day and do a mock SAT and ACT. Practice tests are available all over the web, in guides and so forth. Set up the conditions, treat it like an experiment and do it. The results of a mock test at home are not binding, but they may satisfiy your curiosity and allow you to have some insights early in the high school game. Take it for what it is worth, a very rough indicator but not determinative of what the student will do two years later with far more in their resource bank. Most of the guides offer a scoring guide and the stakes of doing this are only as high as you make them.

EKS's story is huge. I know so many who either wrote off or were written off in relation to math who later found what worked for them. An aside: I increasing think the reason we have so few people enter engineering is we send the message you must have an A+ demonstrated aptitude in math before you turn age 20 to ever be an engineer. We throw away those who may be sufficiently competent in math and incredibly creative too early in the game.

I would be asking some other questions. How does she learn best? You have tried MUS and TT (noting the format/videos were and issue). You have ruled out Life of Fred because you are concerned she might get lost in the "story". When she encounters something she is not familiar with but wants to do/learn, how does she tackle it? Is she a read the manual type? Or does she fearlessly play with it until it works tossing the manual aside? Does she ask a friend to demonstrate? Does she go online to search a new art technique, or does she grab a book or prefer a live class? If she has tried a foreign language, what did she seem to pick up first in it words meanings or sounds? If the only way she could get something she wants is to learn something complicated what way would she self select to learn it (live class, videos she can replay, books, digital game...)? I would also ask some others questions: Does she like any part of math? Is she more compliant or does she prefer to forge her own path? Is she competitive? What medium of art (painting, sketching, sculpting, 3D construction...)? Aside from Art, what would be her favorite subject academically (the one she chooses to work on)? Which subject is she willing to persist in (shows resilence) whether it comes easily at first or not? If asked the following question what does she answer: Math is most like? (put each in order of most true) (a) a new language to learn (B) a jigsaw puzzle to solve © a how to guide? (d) fill in the blank Understanding how Dd prefers to encounter material and what her sense of it is helped us find what worked for her. Ultimately, in math, we wound up with a program that is not what I would have thought initially she would like or thrive in at all. Now that we have done it for years it makes more and more sense to me why she does. Taking her to a store with a wide array of choices and letting her select was worth the time, drive and effort. She owns her math learning and that alone is worth loads in being able to progress. Then, I had to recognize that what worked for her, did not work for me in the process of assuring I was staying ahead of her and refreshing myself.

Have you looked at Lightening Literature? From what I have seen it is less reading and not as much expectation of analysis.

Math will determine a great deal of what he can take when.

I might enjoy teaching my dog Physics more than my teen on most days in February. I have to look into this one.

BTW, anyone ever notice that Chemistry more than any other branch of science feels a need to name all theorems and laws after people. Physics seems far less quick to attribute a principle to an individual without including what the principle is (Geez, even Newton and Einstein don't get exclusive billing like Avagadro and Charles). Maybe, it is all that working with symbols, so much shorthand thinking leaves one less willing to remember a longer expression of a principle.

I really enjoy Chemistry, but reading most texts is an adventure in the abstract or march through tedium to induce madness, or worse they can't exactly decide which they want to be.

Creative writing can be bolstered/encouraged in numerous summer camps or writing intensives (many universities offer them for middle and highschoolers). If she needs to work on "technical aspects" (grammar, parallel structures, sentence diversity, essay forms, ...) Online programs like Write At Home or Bravewriter offer several summer options. Several online schools offer summer only classes/intensives. There are also many threads on this forum filled with various resources that could be used offline. You might want to look around on the Institute of Excellence in Writing website, they have loads of materials. A books you can pick up for inexpensively used is The Lively Art of Writing. The Elements of Style Strunk/White is another great book to have around. It really boils down to your goals and your daughters. If she is really only open to learning from teachers at school, you may need to see if they can make the suggestions to her of ways to build her writing over the summer.

For such a short month it sure can be a big problem.

I buy year round. We don't do a boxed curriculum, so once I have chosen the spine the rest is filling in with workbooks, lab stuff, living books, videos, and so forth.

I have read it. It could be used for high school. I am not familiar with TOG at all. I would say that while I like the narrative form of HOAW, I would suggest something with vivid maps and art from the periods/cultures. I would also want some original documents to work with for study. These could be accomplished in many ways.

The following might give some clues to the goals of the changes. I am pretty sure the assessment they refer to as beginning in 2015 is either the new form of ITBS/ITED's (although I recalled it was suppose to appear sooner) or it is one of the assessments being developed by one of the two "competing" interstate cooperatives. Anyway here is the link: http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2011/11/28/do-multiple-choice-questions-pass-the-test

Yes. I have also been following the proposals for cc science standards. It helps a great deal to not just read the standards, but also read the appedixes and examplars given. What is concerning is how they will be put into action, in the classrooms, in texts, and in assessments. Good material can become distorted... I have watched the lead times on revisions to the AP's and looked back to get a feel for the how the last SAT revision evolved. While it is possible that we see a 2013-14 revision, it is not likely. Implementation is not going smoothly on the ground. Those who are Freshmen this year may well face a revised SAT prior to graduating. The ACT may revise as well. Both organizations were at the table for discussions of the development of the standards.

The article notes that it was likely two semesters (3000 pages per), but it is interesting to think how things change.

:scared:

I have been considering Gruber's Prep Guide for Critical Reading ISBN-10: 1402253400 . Maybe some who might have used it will chime in and comment.

You asked for a book, but I thought you might like this link http://www.booknotes.org/search.aspx?For=serbia . Great discussions with writers.

I have to put a second thumbs up on this particular book. I picked it up on impulse and it has been used and reused and used more in our house. I loved having it on hand while reading "Disappearing Spoon". The one I have has a subtitle of "A Visual Exploartion of Every Known Atom in the Universe" ISBN 978-1-60376-184-0.