Tell me how people use Big History...are you registered life long learners or students/teachers?

Yep, that is pretty much what I am going to do at this point. Toss out a bunch of curriculum and replace with science experiments, videos and a bunch of science reference books

My daughters who are in 8th grade started taking PSAT since 6th grade. I did not prep that I could remember aside for regular school work they do here. It was one 1)give them exposure to a testing situation like SAT at a location different than their usual STAR testing now Common Core testing place 2) give them experience with that type of format of testing 2) you can take this test as many times as you want I am glad I did as my girls said they are not scared of high school work whatsoever. They see it as completely doable. They are excited in fact with high school because of it because many of the problems were familiar or at least looked interesting and fun to my girls. I have a baseline for when Common Core took over now. There has been two years of no real data based on the Common Core practice non scored test they took one year and then the other year. Plus Common Core is nothing compared to the STAR testing they took. With the PSAT tests they took last couple of years, I saw mass improvements in most of their scores and that gave me an idea of what curriculum/program was working for them and what was not and what was or wasn't being applied and generalized outside of the class or curriculum. I read somewhere and spoke to college guidance people to take the PSAT, SAT, ACT as often as possible. Get practiced in test taking skills, deal with anxiety, and on the problems. My girls have taken the PSAT twice now, going in there again this year, next year and the following year...they will have plenty of practice and not be nervous and have an intense pressure to do well since they have had so many changes already. I believe you can choose your best score and send that to colleges etc. I could be wrong.

Keep me posted how you like the DVDs

I was seriously considering to use as a bunch of kits. But man your post Tammi really has me thinking! My girls will be entering high school next year and have no idea what we are going to do!

I am very confused by the diffferent things she offers...can someone break these down?

8th graders using it this semester. Hopefully we will get it done in time. Then off to something else the following semester

It is sitting on my shelf sticking its tongue out at me. It took me several weeks to get registered ---that was a complete hassle. Then I went a scheduled a few weeks worth and started the lessons. We had a family death and went back to the site to find all my hard work scheduling it is gone Science experiments =impossible to do as it requires hard to find or expensive stuff, not every experiment has a video BLAH Many things are class oriented stuff in my humble opinion. For some reason I really thought it was more geared for homeschoolers. Well at least with all the advertisements on it at one point Nothing to scream about...Nothing. I need new options... Have used McHenry, Elemental Science, Education Exploration, Moving Beyond the Page I have kids in 6th and 8th grades as well as Ker again.

Yes go to "assign lessons" and you can click on what you want or garbage can the ones you don't want and/or reorder them.

Incorporating this in our curriculum. Definitely as supplement. Will keep you all posted.

What other subjects are recommended for CLE? By the way the Mobymax math placement test placed her higher than level 300 LightUnits! She tested 4.4 for MobyMax so CLE is definitely working.

I am looking into this an test prep option instead of Waggle and Study Island. Study Island was terribly beyond boring and Waggle my kids say was wierd and hard to figure out.

Science Fusion is just awful. For lower grades use Moving Beyond the Page science or Elemental Science or McHenry or. Supercharged science or education exploration or zingy ....High school students....I am at a loss...Derek owens? Avoid Science Fusion especially the online component. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Science Fusion...waste of money. False hope. Just got it this year. Online set up horrible. Non native English speakers with intense accents that is the customer service. Online scheduling complicated. I got it set up for several weeks and boom family emergency and all assignments scheduled gone. Not all experiments can be seen on video, supplies needed for experiments complicated or too expensive too gather. Honestly program meant for schools not homeschoolers. Just too many components. I'm too frustrated to return to it. And sadly our homeschool charter school recommends it. Not sure if the curriculum director honestly homeschooled herself. Homeschool parents just do not have the time and study how a curriculum works for days, hours. We need things ready to go with minimal prep and set up or else we lost the moment with our kids and they are off doing something else. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

This curriculum has been perfect for my 11yrs old. We dropped down to 300 level based on her testing and have done this over the summer and starting 400 soon. She has struggled and struggled with all types of curriculums. This is my review curriculum. It reviews topics that she has been introduced to but never really fully grasped. Most curriculums move along too quickly. She needs a very spiral approached but not an approached where the problems are introduced in a boring plain way like Saxon. CLE has problems presented in different ways ... matching, fill in blank, dot to dot, interesting math facts and everything is written in the mini workbooks. My daughter does not need to struggle with copying issues...from textbook to paper and as a result she can focus on the task on hand rather than on penmanship. The lessons are pretty short and sweet. Takes her 30 minutes to complete one chapter in a lightunit including times test for facts. I don't do the oral stuff with her until end of light unit and in one swell swoop. I know...not a good idea but time is the issue. Now we also do work in Math in Focus grade level to meet Common core standards for the charter school we are in. A few problems of that a day to fill a full hour of math. Math in focus is not spiral and not a whole lot of review. It is a living hell to teach her with this but it keeps us moving forward. I know she doesn't have to get it fully the first go around because CLE will catch her again. For her Math in Focus is just exposure. I have a wonderful tutor who Skype and works with her daily. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

We just ordered CLE 400 math and language arts. I do not know much about CLE reading program. Can someone fill me in on it?

For some reason the word intervention makes me shudder because we have had lots of intervention. I see it as using different strategies. Anyways, some really early clues that somethings were not quite right with some of my kids: 1)Stopped pointing or never pointed noticed this by age 1.5yrs 2)Stopped waving or never waved by 1.3 yrs 3) Never babbled by 1.5 yrs, mamama, babababa 4) Couldn't stop touching things, constantly having to pull hands back and even then, hands went out to grab, touch again and again etc even in dangerous situations by 1.5yrs 5) wandered away from the family, group like at parks, tries to escape house, walks in the middle of the street, doesn't stop when when you scream stop or call out name 1.5yrs 6) rolled cars back and forth and played with other toys less or just focused on one aspect of the toy 1.4yrs 7) not really talking in full sentences by three, one word or just phrases 3yrs 8) Not looking at what you are pointing at 1yrs old 9) Not showing interest in surround. Just wandering around and can't focus on one thing for more than 3 secs. 1.5 yrs 10)Not talking 2yrs 11) Can speak, but never spoke to anyone outside of the family age 8yrs. This is the time to get hearing tests, vision tests etc and get an assessment through regional center or something place like that. Be aggressive with early intervention. Better safe than sorry. I have had two kids suffer because I took the wait and see approach and meanwhile they were sinking in deeper and deeper depression. People would get mad and frustrated with them including myself because I did not want a diagnosis and did not take the intervention seriously and as a result they learned that they were bad. With each of these kids, basic academics has been really challenging ie colors, numbers, shapes, reading, writing, math Just getting them to sit down and focus and be compliant is a challenge in itself. Then comes the memory issues. The concepts are frequently forgotten and repetition is required. However there are some with amazing gifts. One child has an amazing vocabulary due to scripting. Another child is amazing at putting things together even though he is nonverbal. Another child is great at sewing without a pattern even though she struggles remembering how to do her chores on a daily basis. The main thing is find something they are good at and keep building that up and use it to help gain the skills that are needed.

I hate the online component...Using the middle school modules. Took a month to just get username/password. Now will take another month how to figure out the online parts.

For years I have been pulling my hair out with her. Memory issues, focus issues, dyslexia or something. I tried many different kinds of curriculum for her-math, language arts. Was about to seriously give up and send her to PS and see if the special ed dept might have other tricks up their sleeves since she was RTI once upon a time ago. CLE seriously has made a big difference. She is finally retaining information without too much effort or screaming on my part. I pulled her back to CLE 3 in both subjects despite her entering in 6th grade technically. She is moving along in math beautifully, a few bumps in Language arts as expected. No more tears from her and my hair is growing back. The best part it is not too repetitive for me. In terms of the same activity over and over again. It repeats information but not always in the same format.

Does anyone have Math In Focus Course 3 Extra practice workbook? We did some problems online from their online sample website but it only has the answers on hard copy which we have not ordered yet. Waiting for more funding in the fall. Specifically need answer for 1.4 and 1.5. Thank you!

Just wanted to update. I had no problems jumping into Course 2. It was pretty easy for the most part. What stumps me are the word problems sometimes...so I hired a tutor to help with that part. She is in Canada and knows Asian math well. She says for middle school she likes Math In Focus course 1-3 but for elementary school aged Primary Math. For high school she likes the IB math. International baccleaureate math.

This great writing program for middle schoolers and lower high school students is open for registration. I just got send info via mail. My girls took these classes for several semesters including summers and have been highly highly pleased. This will be the first semester where I will have no kids in her classes but will take her Spring class. Amy is great with communicating with you and your kids. Her teaching is very systematic and leaves no room for questions or feeling overwhelmed. Everything is pretty doable and my girls have been pretty independent with the required work. My girls have all learned a lot! I am thinking of placing one child in Fabulary. Still thinking about it. http://www.attuneup.com/

Anyone?

Has anyone used this : http://leadershipeducationacademy.com/ It has excellence in literature classes.

http://leadershipeducationacademy.com/fall-2012-schedule/excellence-in-literature/ There is excellence in Literature class.