I just answered on your other thread :-). But you can read more about how I did AAS on my blog too.

It sounds like your son is doing great! No need to go faster or spend more time on spelling unless you want to. My kids went through levels 1, 2, and part of 3 their first year (they were 9 and 11--oldest almost finished 3, while my youngest was just getting started in that level). This was working 4-5 days per week, and doing 15-20 minute lesson times. After that, my kids usually did 1 or 1.5 levels per year working that much (we often did the All About Homophones book on Fridays, so we usually worked just M-TH on spelling.) I had struggling spellers who needed lots of review, but AAS definitely helped them to be a lot more successful with spelling.

One of mine used them and found them really helpful (I was pleasantly surprised!). The other didn't use them (and either there wasn't an app then or I didn't know about it).

Yes, you can fast-track in AAS for a more advanced student (or for an older student--I started my kids at 9 & 11 and we only took a few weeks to fill in gaps from level 1). Here's a blog article that shows what that can be like. AAS has a gradual progression for increasing the student’s stamina and fluency in writing that’s very helpful for reluctant writers, so you could use for that purpose too. It starts with just words and short phrases in Level 1, bumps up to phrases and short sentences in Level 2, and progresses to 12 dictation sentences per step in Level 3. Then the Writing Station is introduced, where students start to make up their own sentences (or little stories if they want) using a given list of words. My kids used to like to see how many words they could fit into one sentence. Or, the words seemed to go together and suggest a story to them, and they'd write a short vignette. (Since they didn't really like writing, I'd been dreading this exercise, and was pleasantly surprised that they liked it!) This really helped my kids start to make that transition to more outside writing.

Congratulations! If you have a box for awards or honors on her transcript, I would add it there. What a wonderful honor!

Just agreeing with everyone else--be done! Enjoy some summer, your visitors, time off with dh, household projects, R&R, some planning time, have fun with your kids...chill :-). As the old saying goes, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy :-).

I thought it was "just okay" for history. (We liked Notgrass Government a lot though). My oldest used Sonlight 100 for history, but I was frustrated with all the notes on the Hakim books. I had decided to either use Hakim but significantly edit the notes to make things more doable (my kids are not super fast readers and we didn't want to spend all that time on the notes), or something else when I did US history with my dd. DD thought she might like Notgrass, so we tried it. On so many things, it just seemed like cursory information--we missed the depth of doing SL. Granted, my dd really doesn't like history no matter what we used (which makes the fact that she liked Notgrass Government all the more impressive to me. My history-loving son liked Notgrass Government too.) Still...I was underwhelmed with the US history. The lit selections are good (I actually did a combo of the Notgrass selections and the SL 100 selections since I had already read some of the Notgrass selections aloud to my kids when my oldest used SL 100.)

I've seen AAR and AAS work for many students with dyslexia and also with a variety of other learning disabilities, so that's definitely a choice worth considering. The author's son had severe dyslexia (they were told he would never read) and that led to her creating the program. She's a member of the International Dyslexia Association and has tutored for over 20 years. Check out the Dyslexia Resources page too. Bless you for helping your friend's daughter!

The transcript form I used had a place for awards. You wouldn't list all EC's there, but if there was a nice award she won for writing, you could include it in a place like that.

LOL, it might be a high goal, depending on his level of math dislike--but maybe "within tolerable limits" will happen! (Although my math-hating son did enjoy geometry! He liked the method/approach of MUS and enjoyed Mr. Demme, but nothing could really make him like algebra!)

I would want a significant portion of each credit to include instruction. If she's mainly writing for the joy of writing, that sounds more extra-curricular to me. I did a ton of extra-curricular writing when I was in high school--had poetry published, entered various contests and so on. I think I'd only count some of what she's doing for credit, and see if some of her efforts can be made to shine as ec's.

Wow. That seems ridiculous!

I think History of Medicine was our favorite too. My dd used that one in 5th. Her 7th grade year she did a strongly hands-on approach to science, and then in 8th she did several other Tiner books plus a science fair project. It was nice to have a break from all the hands-on she had done in 7th, so the Tiner series was a perfect fit in that way--we didn't mind the lack of projects. (And having a science fair project also gave her another hands-on outlet). She did about 1 book per quarter, and spent a quarter on her project. HTH!

We didn't but my dd did use Apologia Advanced Bio with the book--excellent course! (And much easier on Mom than Chem & Physics, LOL!)

Awesome! So fun to see your son see that success. I love his enthusiasm for learning to read. Here's an article on blending with a short video demo that you might find helpful. You can also do things like lay 3 pieces of paper on the floor with letters on them (like m, a, p). Model blending for him--step on each one and say the sounds. Then start over and go a little faster, this time slowly blending the letters. Then run over them quickly and say the word fast. Map! Then have him try it. You can do a similar game with a race car--put letters on index cards and let him run a race car over them in the same way. (If you are using a word with a letter team like "that," put the "th" on one paper.) Have fun with it!

In the latest version of The Well-Trained Mind, SWB and JW say that All About Reading is "the most age-appropriate and parent-friendly Orton-Gillingham program on the market." Marie Rippel's son has severe dyslexia and they were told he would never read (you can see a short video about his story here). She's a member of the International Dyslexia Association and of Pro Literacy, has taught graduate level courses in O-G, and tutored for more than 20 years. It's definitely worth considering for a student with dyslexia.

I will say that my oldest who did not do Pre-calc had no trouble testing into and taking college math. Maybe some Algebra 2 courses include a few more topics, but if so, it really didn't show up as a gap for him.

Yeah, not too surprising!

One of my kids did, and one didn't. The blocks are used in Pre-algebra, and there are algebra inserts for Alg. 1. IIRC, they were shown a few times in geometry but not much beyond that point.

I'd ask her. Maybe to her it seems really hard--maybe even though she gets 80% right that first time, she has to think really hard to do so and it's overwhelming. Maybe she thinks she should get 100% first time. Maybe the pages are visually overwhelming or crowded, or there are too many problems or the print is too small or the pictures are distracting (or there's not enough pictures)... Whenever something was causing that much strife for one of my kids, I used to say (during a snack time or other time when they weren't already upset), "If you could change one thing about math, what would you change?" Sometimes my oldest said "to not do math," LOL, but I just laughed, said that wasn't an option but that we CAN change how we do it or even use a different program--and then bit by bit I'd get him to share what he liked and didn't like about it. We looked at samples together too, and found things that were a better fit.

Not at that age, but I made the mistake of taking a 10 week summer between first and second grade, and my oldest forgot how to form a bunch of letters--I was so surprised! We spent a lot of time reviewing that fall! (And I never took more than a 6-7 week break after that.)

Have you had her do the placement tests? I'd see how she does--maybe she would test out of Gamma. Either way, I do think it's worth it to spend time memorizing math facts as you go. Long Division and upper math can be challenging if those facts aren't down. I get the concern about not wanting something to be too easy and having to buy more than one level in a year--that can add up! However, sometimes there is a real benefit to starting on the easy side and building up a student's confidence and math fluency--that's definitely worth considering. I think the manipulatives make it more fun, and they also make it easy for the child to teach the concept back to you (which is an important part of mastery-based learning). If you can swing them, I'd go for them. MUS has really good resale value for both the TM/DVD's and the manipulatives, so you can recoup at least some of your expenses when you are done with the materials. HTH some!

We actually waited until Sophomore year for my oldest to allow him to ease into high school work. (It allowed me to ease into teaching high school as well!). It was a good decision for him. In our case, I allowed my son to choose a language I couldn't support (Japanese). I thought I'd learn it alongside him. Ha! I did the first several lessons with him and realized I wasn't going to have the time and patience to keep up. But even that turned out to be a good thing--I asked questions and had him teach me things he learned. He got to be the "expert" for a change and really enjoyed that.

It was a great fit here, and both of my kids got solid math ACT scores. Sometimes you have to go with what works for you and your family.

In dd's senior year, she did A&P for science (1 credit) and health as an elective (half credit). The two courses went nicely together and did have some overlap of topics. Personally I wouldn't count the time spent on health (whether intertwined with A&P or separate as we did it) for science credit. It just doesn't seem to really "fit" with the expectations colleges will probably have for a science course. When I was in high school, health was under Physical Education--and that's also where our local CC places it. It does intersect science of course, and I suppose you could make it very science-y...but I think it puts you in a position of needing to "prove" it's a science course.