I think you're smart to switch away from Henle. My daughter switched to PS, and her vocabulary was significantly behind because Henle teaches about 25% of the quantity of vocabulary that it should. In addition, the layout is crowded and not the easy on the eyes.

We also liked Ellen McHenry. She speaks to kids without dumbing the material down.

I'm starting a weekly math club this coming year that will, in part, prepare for the Elementary MOEMs tests. I want it to be fun but challenging. I'd love to know what resources you all would recommend.

Seaben, My math club prep is taking shape, and I am revisiting your blog. It's amazing!!!! I am blown away by the wealth of knowledge you have shared.

Definitely switch. There are much better curricula out there to challenge a gifted math student. Beast Academy is the curriculum you will hear the most about. It’s not for the faint of heart though. My kids have thrived with BA, but there was a good deal of hand holding in the beginning. Also the meat of BA is entirely in the practice books. The guides are fun, but the advanced learning happens when you tackle the starred practice problems.

This is our first time with a winner. What did they do in previous years?

I could read this post over and over again from 2013. For me this is the essence of homeschooling. I want it to be a sticky. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The link was for the whole talk for me. Do you have a guess of roughly where the slide is? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I tried to pm Kathy, but the computer gave me an error :-/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you, Daijobu, for your insight. I was beginning to feel like maybe it was all a lost cause. I start researching and then feel like all is lost.

Also if you embraced the BA AOPS rigor from early on would processing speed still be a significant factor in success?

Hmmmm... processing speed. This is excellent and new information for me. We do not have fast processing speeds in our family, though we love challenging math. Should I abandon the pursuit of competition success? My 9th grade daughter loves math and enjoys hard problem solving problems, but left a significant portion of the AMC10 blank because of time constraints. Granted she was going in blind; however, with focused effort how much can she improve with a slower than average processing speed? She hopes to major in math at a “mathy†school. From reading literature of some test prep centers, I was under the impression that a good AMC score is all but required to get into MIT and the likes. She was planning on dedicating serious time this summer to test prep, but I’m wondering if there might be more worthwhile goals to make her (with her slower than average processing speed) an attractive candidate for a competitive math college. How can you demonstrate excellence in math in high school with a slowish processing speed?

Daijobu, did you start a math club? Do you have a pointers? Should I advertise it as fun primarily or challenging?

Ruth and daijobu, thank you so much for “biting.†This is super, super helpful. I’m trying to figure out how to start a math team, but once homeschooling expands beyond the instruction in my home, I get intimidated. Ruth, I have a couple of questions. Has your son surpassed your math abilities? If so, when did that happen? When he is stumped, to whom does he turn? Also did he embrace the two hours a day of work even at the youngest age? Did you split the time up within the day or work a solid block? Was he determined to finish the problems on his own or did you just force the point? Also did you do pre-algebra with AOPS? Thanks for all your help, moms!

The test prep books from AOPS say to wait until after algebra. We are purposely trying to go slow with subject advancement because I fell into the calculus trap with my oldest, but I don’t want to hold off test prep at all. Have any of you tried to AOPS test prep earlier? Pretty much I want someone to spell out a sequence from 4th-12th grade that tells me where to put all of the non traditional math and the test prep. Any takers? I currently have a 9th header in honors precalc (with the highest grade in her class), with great SAT scores, but an abysmal AMC 10 score. I’m realizing that I didn’t go about it correctly with her (not enough test prep and discreet math) and I don’t want to make the same mistakes twice. So does anyone have a long term plan, you’d recommend for the 3rd grader?

When do you all recommend first taking the amc8?

My son is in grade 3. I think he will enjoy math competitions. So far we’ve done MK. We don’t live closer to any test prep centers. I’d love to incorporate a small amount of test prep into our week in the hopes of keeping him on track to do well on the AMC test in the future. I need a plan. My daughter is in 9th grade and took the AMC 10 for the first time. She didn’t do well. While I’m not surprised because so much prep often goes into these tests, I’m hoping not to make the same mistakes with my younger son. So if you don’t live in a major metro, how do you prepare to do well nationally on these math tests?

I’m trying to read print more and look at my phone less. I like The Atlantic and The New York Times for online content. I just recently subscribed to The Atlantic print. Now I need to find a newspaper for home delivery. I’m in Pennsylvania. I have sticker shock. Any suggestions for a well written, quality print newspaper subscription that isn’t going to cost me $500 a year? I really wanted to do NYT, but it’s out of my budget.

Who sent you the email? Was it the proctor at your test?

No email here. I suppose that means my kids didn't place. For those of you that know your children won, can you log on and see the results for your kids on your user account?

We are currently working through BA 3 with my 8 year old and loving it!!! My older children don't love AOPS, but I'd like to have them experience some of the best chapters of BA even though they are in higher math. I think there would be value in learning some of the unique BA approach. So far I'm planning on having them complete the squares chapter in 3b. For those who are farther along in BA, what pages/chapters do you think would benefit older students even if they don't do the whole program or are in a much higher level of math?

Talk to me about using Teaching Textbooks or Saxon Math (instead of Aops or some other mathy curricula) if you have mathy kids. I was about to buy Aops algebra and realized that some people stick to curricula like TT and Saxon for their very capable math students. Why? What do you like about it?

I just don't like when I hear complete strangers counting heads out loud. Why do they do it out loud?

DS7 has a thumb sucking, shirt chewing problem. I'd like to get him some gum to chew that is healthier. Any recommendations?

anyone?