This. This sums it up right there. :)

iTunes has the books for $10.99 which is cheaper than an Audible monthly membership.

I have also looked at the Apologia videos. I think these would be great - except I think that they are not quite as engaging as they could be and for that much money, I think I'll stick with the you tube videos we find to correspond to the lessons. :) Still, the new videos may fill a need that a lot of families have. :)

We used RWT live for a year. Mr. Rosenoff is a bit abrasive with students (and parents). I would not ever do another live class with him. I also toyed with the idea of getting the flash drive through Rainbow Resource at a discounted price (now no longer available) for two reasons only: 1 - the fill-in the blank notes 2 - the help with writing a formal lab report I am not sure Mr. Rosenoff's instruction is as wonderful as some others make it out to be, which is why I would only buy the flash drive at a deep discount. Don't know if that helps at all. If you follow his company page on facebook, you'll get a good feel for who he is. I stopped following a few months ago if that tells you anything. Seeing his back and forth rants with customers on his page turned me off. I think that he is not a well man. That said, he may be a genius with science. I don't know. But I do know that I would rather have a teacher who is only "so-so" with science but who has a teaching heart and strong moral character over a man who is brilliant with science but demeans those who disagree with him. Anyway... ;)

Which social forums do you see discussion of his product? He seems to follow one and talked about it, but I don't know where it is. :confused1: Also, he and Dr. Wile have parted ways! Dr. Wile still says that Mr. R is a "master teacher," but that's as far as he goes. They had a very heated email exchange and that led to a separation. :hurray:

Conceptual Chemistry looks like an amazing book and class videos are available for almost every unit! www.conceptualacademy.com offers access to these videos for only $30. It's a great academy. We are using them for Conceptual physics. Love it.

We used DIVE for biology. Not a good fit for us - at all. The lectures were sort of dull. Not engaging for my son at all. I understand that not all college professors will be engaging, but I feel like while my kids are learning at home, we should look for the materials that will capture and keep their attention. DIVE didn't do that for us.

And I have heard that the videos are dull and boring. Not so? We were toying with the idea of purchasing Red Wagon Tutorials flash drive for biology. Can you talk me into the Apologia DVDs?

I HIGHLY recommend Tyler DeWitt's videos on YouTube. He explains a lot of Chemistry concepts, but some of it can roll over into physics. He's pretty awesome!

BYU-Provo offers University courses at something like $547 per class...something like that. plus the cost of books. Their course offerings are amazing, though and makes BYU-I's concurrent enrollment course list pale in comparison. But, at $30 a credit hour for the CE courses with BYU-I, it's a steal of a deal. :) A note about books: We were able to find our son's book at a used book site: www.betterworldbooks.com for $30. Not to shabby.

Nope! A student WILL need to speak with an LDS ecclesiastical leader in his/her area for a "recommendation." What that basically entails is a run down of the honor code: No cheating, turn work in on time, do your own work, etc. The leader just makes sure that the student understands that since the coursework is done outside of school, the standards for being honest are the same as if the student were sitting in a classroom. I asked my son what else our local leader spoke to him about, but that was all he could remember, so that may be it. BYU-I can help you find a local leader to do that part of the endorsement. Enrollment is a fairly straight forward process and I love it because no test scores are required for admittance. Also, so far, each college we have looked at locally will accept BYU-I's classes as transfer credits, so that's a plus. :) If you opt for this route, I'd love to hear about your experience. With Psych, my son has had weekly field experiments - those have been the most fun because he gets to play with his family with psych tests. :)

This may not be new to some, but it's new to me. :) Chalk Dust videos are now available for online streaming to computers and mobile devices. www.coolmathguy.com The price for streaming for the year is $150. If 10 or more homeschool moms want to purchase the same level, they can do so for $50 each student. This video instruction is, hands down, the best we have seen over the years. The length of each video lesson can seem overwhelming, but if it's broken down into viewing times, it's more manageable, especially for the younger students. Anyway, I'm excited about this as I think we will use the one month access for the ACT/SAT prep course. :) The textbooks will need to be purchased separately and that info can be found here: Basic Math Basic College Mathematics, 9th edition (Aufmann and Lockwood) Textbook ISBN-13: 978-1-4390-4696-8 ISBN-10: 1-4390-4696-4 Student Solutions Manual ISBN-13: 978-0-538-49386-4 ISBN-10: 0-538-49386-0 Prealgebra Prealgebra, 5th edition(Aufmann, Barker, Lockwood) Textbook ISBN: 0-618-95688-3 Solutions Guide ISBN: 0-618-99673-0 Algebra I Elementary Algebra, 5th edition (Larson) Textbook ISBN 13: 978-0-547-10227-6 ISBN 10: 0-547-10227-5 Solutions Guide ISBN 13: 978-0-547-14011-7 ISBN 10: 0-547-14011-8 Geometry Elementary Geometry for College Students, 5th edition (Alexander and Koeberlein) Textbook ISBN 13: 978-1-439-047903 Complete Solutions Guide ISBN 13: 978-0-538-737692 Algebra II Intermediate Algebra, 5th edition (Larson) Textbook ISBN 13: 978-0-547-10217-7 ISBN 10: 0-547-10217-8 Solutions Guide ISBN 10: 0-547-14019-3 Precalculus Precalculus With Limits, A Graphing Approach, 5rd edition (Larson, Hostetler, Edwards) Textbook ISBN 10: 0-618-85150-X ISBN 13: 978-0-618-85150-8 Solutions Guide ISBN 13: 978-0-618-85187-4 Statistics Understanding Basic Statistics, 5th edition (Brase and Brase) Textbook ISBN 10: 0547132492 ISBN 13: 9780547132495 College Algebra College Algebra, A Graphing Approach, 5th edition (Larson, Hostetler, Edwards) Textbook ISBN 10: 0-618-85188-7 ISBN 13: 978-0-618-85188-1 Solutions Guide ISBN 10: 0-618-99003-8 Trigonometry Trigonometry, 7th edition (Larson and Hostetler) Textbook ISBN 10: 0-618-64332-X ISBN 13: 978-0-618-64332-5 Solutions Guide ISBN 13: 978-0-618-64335-6 Calculus Calculus of a Single Variable, 9th edition (Larson, Hostetler, Edwards) Textbook ISBN 10: 0-547-20998-3 Solutions Guide ISBN 10: 0-547-21298-4

Dr. Wile authors great books, but his chemistry course is math-heavy. Conceptual Chemisty by John Suchocki seems to be a great book with free online videos to support the lessons. http://conceptualchemistry.com/offers the free videos if you sign up as a homeschooling parent. He has also launched a new website that offers the same videos but has built in grading on quizzes for $30 a year: www.conceptualacademy.com Good luck!

Our state also offers free college tuition for highschoolers, but I will mention that Brigham Young-Idaho offers a limited number of classes for $30 a credit hour! http://www.byui.edu/concurrent-enrollment Click on the "Application Checklist" to see current classes. At a glance, here they are: B 101 - Introduction to Business (3 credits) FDAMF 101 - American Foundations (3 credits) FDENG 101 - Writing and Reasoning Foundations (3 credits) FDMAT 108 - Math for the Real World (3 credits) FDSCI 101 - Science Foundations (2 credits) FDSCI 201 - Natural Disasters (3 credits) HS 280 - Medical terminology (2 credits) PSYCH 111 - General Psychology (3 credits) PSYCH 112 - Career Development in Psychology (1 credit) ART107- Design and Color (3 credits) COMM 125 - Visual Fundamentals(3 credits) ECEN 150 - Electric Circurt Analysis I (3 credits) CS 124 - Introduction to Software Development (3 credits) My son is taking Psychology right now and has really, really enjoyed his class.The professor is polite and quite helpful if there are ever any questions. Even with my state offering free tuition, I do wish that BYU-I offered more classes because I would probably just stay with them. :)

We also tried DIVE to make it work with Apologia. Pros 1 - the labs are done for student and are presented with photos (though this is also a con if you want your child to learn on their own). The photos and explanations are clear. 2 - as far as I can tell, the labs coincide with the AP biology exam 3 - the student notebook is well done 4 - the fee is just right for homeshooling families 1 - my son didn't like the voice over slide show presentations 2 - i didn't like that DIVE's labs didn't coincide with Apologia's labs 3 - the labs are done for the students (which is also a pro if you don't have the right lab equipment) 4 - the lectures don't necessarily coincide with what was read in the Apologia book. What I mean is, while the lecture may cover the same topic, it didn't go into depth with the Apologia book's readings. I guess we were hoping for a professor to delve into the Apologia topics as they were presented. That wasn't the case and so we were a bit disappointed. It isn't a bad course, but it wasn't a fit for us.

We are vacillating between Conceptual Physics and Apologia's physics. Here's where we go back and forth (note: we have used Apologia for years): Conceptual has some math, but isn't dependent on math for understanding - I think Apologia is. My son does well in math, but has not yet reached Trig (soon, though). CP doesn't have labs built in like Apologia and we like Apologia's labs. CP isn't laid out with the homeschooler in mind as far as assignments go - Apologia is. So, our hangup is the math portion...the Apologia sample online shows a relatively easy math problem for their lab. But I am SURE there are way more complex computations required later in the book (I haven't seen an Apologia physics book to compare). :huh: Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Has anyone used this? I have the book, but wonder just what sort of activities are involved with the book and if it will really take all year to do. Thanks in advance!

https://www.facebook.com/RWT101 January 13

Is anyone taking their classes? Did anyone else see that? How do you feel about their request or "offer" to advertise? They are also fading our Dr. Wile's books to offer their own instead. Again, does this feel "off" to anyone else?

I wish I could offer more, but I can tell you that when my husband and I were researching video tutors for my son's algebra, we both fell in love with CD! We felt that Dana's instruction was, hands down, the best math instruction we had seen. However (and this was a big however), the length of the lectures was too much for my then 12 year old son. We didn't have the luxury of simply pausing the DVD at the "fade" part to work on what had been taught to that point, so my son was asked to watch 45 minutes of lecture straight through. He wasn't up for it at the time. We opted for Videotext because the video instruction was very well done and very short. :) The graphics made learning the concepts easy and the length of lessons made math manageable during our week. That said, we are now in a position to allow my next son the option of CD or VT. We DID try CD for a time and I have been pleased with both math programs (CD and VT). I would be happy with either program that my next son chooses. Does that help at all?

I agree about the "rants" I am sure that Mr. Rosenoff is very qualified to teach chemistry (or any science, really), but his approach to teaching high school students isn't quite what most parents would envision for their children. My son is taking the chemistry course now - - and sometimes I'll watch the videos with him. Honestly, I am disappointed with the lesson presentations. I would expect a "wow" lesson each week, but...that isn't what we get. The students are shown web page after web page after web page on the topic at hand. It would make me crazy to watch that each week (my poor son). This will be our last year. We really only signed up to learn how to write a formal lab report. If *I* were to be a video professor who charges $400 a year, I would absolutely show...videos...graphics...animation...and I would interact with the students quite a bit more. I would show the "fun" of chemistry. An example of how Mr. Rosenoff doesn't engage with students... he'll ask a question and ask the students to answer in "1, 2, 3, enter, please." and as soon as he says "please", he says, "yep, yep, yep. that's right." Not really even looking to see if there were wrong answers. Or he'll say "do we all understand? and everyone is going, yes, yes, yes." - what kid is going to want to dare say "Hey, I don't understand" when the teacher is implying that all students should understand based on his master teaching and after reading the materials. I guess I was expecting a little more gentle approach from a teacher like that. We have had other video classes in the past and the teachers were all kind and friendly and VERY approachable. If I'm going to put my money someplace, it won't be with RWT again.

What an insightful post!! We use Sonlight for history and a few years ago we read two historical fiction books on the Civil War. Each book presented viewpoints from both sides. Because we are from the deep south, we've always "favored" the rebels...solely b/c that's part of our heritage and history. However, after reading each book, we walked away with new insight, compassion, sympathy and respect for both sides (leaders, soldiers, and the families of each). Finding a good balance is important. Developing critical thinking skills even more so.

UPDATE TO MY UPDATE! :huh: :huh: This is 100% true...and so, so frustrating. So, my son submits his first formal lab report last week from his personal email account, which he doesn't check every day. On Wednesday Mr. R emails my son and tells my son that the email did not have the correct subject line and the paper could not be graded until the email was RESENT with the CORRECT subject line. :confused1: As my son didn't see the email ... he didn't resubmit. On Saturday, Mr. R. emails my son again and says that because the paper was not resubmitted (due date was Friday), the paper could not be graded! :cursing: HUH?! :crying: FOR SURE we will NOT be back to use his program again. No way. A good teacher HELPS students along...he doesn't bark orders and expect perfection the first time around. A good teacher will teach to the heart of a student. For a man who proclaims his devout Christianity, I would think that following his Master's way would be at the top of his priority list. *As an aside, he allows students to send in a report draft that he will review and suggest corrections or revisions. If our subject line was incorrect on the draft, THAT would have been a perfect time for the teacher to correct it ... or at least remind my son to review the student manual or go back through hours of lecture videos to see what the correct format should have been. Wow. Just wow. :thumbdown:

Update and response to the above: My husband sees great value in learning how to write a "proper" lab report for college. He was never taught how to do that in high school and had to spend a fair amount of time learning it in college. He felt that if Mr. R. could prepare our son for just that very thing through RWT, then it was worth the money. *I* am the enforcer of this program at home and there is a LOT of hand-holding for my son since this is his first exposure to strict guidelines with an online class. I agree with EVERY. SINGLE. THING. you said above. I have emailed a few questions to Mr. R. and to be honest, *I* am totally afraid of the response I will get! Mainly it's "If you will read the instructions you will have your answer." or, "If you paid attention in class you would have your answer." <---so, a few times we have had to go back through hours of lectures to find the 3 seconds it took him to answer the question. I appreciate the accountability he puts on his students, but c'mon...at some point it might be easier (for his paying students) to simply answer the question! His lectures are not incredibly enlightening and I have found that sometimes videos found on the internet can be more informational and effective in explaining a concept. I think that we have benefited from the deadlines he gives (chemistry is the only class we are on track with this year in school) and from the formal lab reports, but I'm not positive that we will use his class in the future... Here is one example of his most recent behavior ... Some parents reported that while their student was taking the online test, the server crashed, or something happened and their student was unable to finish the exam by the deadline. He wrote a mass email to all of us and said "It's not my fault that happened (technology at its finest). If you would have taken the test earlier in the day, you would have had time to fix the problem. Too bad for your student." and then... last week...our LIVE lecture was disconnected... He emailed saying that his system was down and that students needed to watch last year's lecture. Funny how technology glitches are not his fault but he wanted understanding from his paying members for the error on his end. I don't know that he apologized for his glitch, but it would have been nice if he had. Just that one example made me think...humility in all areas of life go a long way. :)

We are in our first year of RWT, and I too found the number of different "maunals" and "guides" to be a bit confusing. I understand the parent notebook to be simply a record of what the child has done. But...I may be way off...I'll look for that answer as well and maybe we can chat about it again soon. :)