My daughter is in 6th grade now, so my plan for the next few years: 7th: AOPS Counting & Probability (and possibly AoPS Number Theory) 8th: AOPS Geometry 9th: AOPS Intermediate Algebra 10th: AOPS Pre Calculus 11th: Swokowski Calculus I (and possibly AOPS Calculus) 12th: Not sure yet, but maybe Calculus II (I am comfortable teaching Calculus, because I used to do so at the college level.) This child handles math well, and AOPS (with the exception of some of the *'d problems) does not seem to be a struggle for her. She is used to doing multiple math curricula in a year. She has done lots of Saxon (which I think is excellent for review purposes), most of Russian Math 6, and before that Singapore PM 3-5, most of the CWPs and IPs (US Editions) from 3-6 (which are excellent for problem solving purposes.) I have younger children who at this point would not be able to handle the above 7-12th plan. I have not yet decided what to use with them. I plan to take it one year at a time with all of them and see how they progress.

Graduate degree in Mathematics.

Graduate degree in Mathematics and Fellowship in Society of Actuaries.

I give my daughter a test every six chapters with content covering the previous six, so after Ch6, Ch12, Ch18 (which would cover content from Ch 13-Ch 18). I am planning to give the final test after Ch 22 (end of book). The final test will contain material mostly from Ch 19-22, but a small amount of material from earlier chapters. I haven't given my daughter quizzes, but I see nothing wrong with doing so; it would give you a snapshot of what he is retaining. A test is an excellent way to review. If you plan to count the tests as a large part of his grade, I would give him similar problems for a pretest and time to review before giving him a test. Many of the previous chapters' concepts are woven into the further chapters, so there is review built in. If you wanted to do a test over the entire book, I would allow extra time due to the amount of content covered. This would be a good preparation for college classes which DO give semester and final tests. A great source for test problems are the reviews at the end of each chapter. You could write something similar to those, but I would avoid putting too many of the starred (most challenging) problems on the test. If you do write your own test, make sure you work the test first to catch any errors, and then you already have your answer key written. Good luck. :)

I would have him continue on through Singapore, but add in the CWP or IP books which will give him a deeper math understanding than the general books. You could also go with Beast Academy with starts at 3A, and is now available from AoPS. That is great that he is doing so well in math. Keep him challenged by adding in more mathematical depth to his curricula. Good luck.:)

I don't know. :)

When I mean independently, I mean that she reads the assignment by herself, does the assignment on her own, then I correct her work daily. We will discuss problems after she attempts them and misses them. I usually have here attempt fixing her mistakes several times before I discuss with her. She usually is able to solve them on her own after several attempts. She does not look at the solution manuel EVER, unless I ask her to look at the way the author solves a problem. She is stubborn, thinks looking at the solution manuel is 'cheating', and usually thinks her way of solving something it better -even when it isn't.;)

Thanks to all who posted in this thread. I have learned a great deal from you.:) My daughter is on track to finish AoPS Intro to Algebra book in the next few months. I did think the scope of topics went well beyond a typical Algebra I book, but did not realize much of Algebra II was also covered. I was thinking that AoPS Intermediate Algebra was Algebra II. I agree that AoPS Intro to Algebra can be completed in a year or less. She works through it independently, but does ask me occasionally about a *'d problem. She has told me several times how it is her favorite math we've done, so that is a good sign.

If you are asking above and beyond math curricula, I think it helps to let children solve their own problems from the time they are very little...as long as they are in no danger. Also, when children are doing hard, frustrating math problems and they make mistakes, make them fix them. I sometimes give my daughter the same problem five times until she solves it. If she has been working on it for awhile I will sometimes point out where she is going wrong, and give her another way of thinking of it. But I do not tell her the answer. She will usually figure it out after awhile. Then she feels proud of herself. It helps in math to have that 'never give up' attitude. ;)

I think it's important to really understand Algebra. I taught college math for several years, and weaknesses in Algebra make basic college-level math a difficult experience for many students. I would make sure she is strong in Algebra. In our situation, my daughter (6th grade), is finishing up her second Algebra, AOPS Algebra, and she wants to jump into AOPS Geometry in 7th. But I am considering having her instead go though AOPS Counting and Probability and Number Theory courses first. As far as a long-term math plan, I'm taking it one year at a time. :)

Well, we've not used Beast Academy, but my daughter did tell me recently (before I noticed all these BA threads) that AOPS Algebra is her favorite math she's ever used...which has caused me to take a second look. Keep us posted as to how its working out. :)

My daughter (now 12) used Saxon Algebra last year (and before that she used Saxon Algebra 1/2 and Russian Math 6) and is now working through AOPS Algebra independently. Although she does prefer AOPS to Saxon Algebra, I think Saxon helped her develop a strong skills base. If you think of it like "practicing the piano", what Saxon did for her was help automate skills so that she focuses more of her time on creatively looking for solutions in more difficult problems as are found in AOPS. I do have the video components from Saxon Algebra I, but she had no interest in using them. I think it is nice to have them if she ever wants them though. Sometimes it can be helpful to see an idea taught from another person's perspective. I suggest that you pick one and stick with it. The way I've handled this in the past is that if I want to use more than one curricula, I finish one full curriculum throughout the year and and then supplement (for us it was usually on Thursdays and Fridays) with something else. We can end up using two full curricula throughout the year, but we do some work in the summer, also, so it doesn't seem overwhelming. Good Luck. :)

What I have scheduled so far for Fall 2012: Math: AOPS Geometry and continue on with CLAA Arithmetic I (already enrolled in this class spring 2012) Latin/Greek and Vocab: CLAA Grammar II-A (Method) and II-B (Reading) (recently graduated Grammar I) Grammar: Rod and Staff English 7 Literature: Long reading list designed by her father History/Geography: To be determined Logic: To be determined Science: Physical Science (Outsourced) Art: Artistic Pursuits and outsourced This child is very independent, and she enjoys most of these subject/curricula we have used for awhile. ;) I'm interested to see what others are doing, also.

For the spring 2012 semester, this is what we are using for my 6th grade daughter. 6th grade Math – Art of Problem Solving Algebra I & Stanford EPGY (Online) Latin – Classical Liberal Arts Academy Grammar I (Online) (almost completed) English – Rod & Staff English 6 Spelling – Vocabulary from Classical Roots Book A Science – General Science (Outsourced) History/Geography – From Sea to Shining Sea/Map Skills Writing – Writing With Skill (SWB) (we finished Writing Strands Level 4 last fall) Logic – Mind Benders – B Series

Hello, I would use the CWP 2 after Saxon 5/4 and CWP 3 after 6/5. There are worked examples to follow to use the bar method to solve many of the problems at the beginning of each section in the CWP books. I use the standards editions of these now, but have used the US editions and there are worked examples in those as well. Good Luck. :)

My daughter is using the Standard Edition Challenging Word Problems 6. She is about half way through the book. She seems to like it. There are a lot of problems that can be solved using an extension of the bar diagram method but to more complicated cases. I know you can find the books at Christian Book Distributors for a bit of a sale price. Although they did not have CWP6 (standards) available when I wanted to order it for my daughter about a month ago. Good luck. :)

From my own experience majoring in math, I was offered a software engineering job, but was also accepted into a PhD math program. I had taken a fair amount of computer science courses, also. My husband has advanced degrees in math and is a actuary. He started taking the actuary exams early on before getting his bachelor's in math and continued taking them throughout graduate school. Math is a very broad field, but most of the people we know with math degrees have gone on to become either actuaries, computer engineers or math professors. I think it is an excellent field to study and highly recommend it. We had an excellent math professor in college who was very knowledgeable of the paths one could take with a math degree. I recommend speaking with an actual professor who has experience with math students at his/her university.

We are continuing on doing mainly Latin for this next year, but I also have the next levels of Hebrew and Spanish on hand. WTM and LCC influenced my decision for Latin. My daughter is also interested in learning French.

Your description of math tests in Russia sounds similar to the set up for a typical graduate level math class exam at a university in America. In my Real Analysis course, which was the first course I took at that level, on the first test there were 5 questions and they were all proofs to be proven. You had to be able to prove them to get any credit for them, although not orally. I agree with the Kiselev's Geometry books [i-Planimetry and II-Stereometry] as a supplemental geometry recommendation. These books use formal math definitions, language, and there examples of proofs throughout. The content of the books makes logical sense when read carefully. I would have a blank piece of paper handy to make notes and sketches to fully understand while reading. I purchased mine here: http://www.sumizdat.org/

Books that have formal definitions help set the stage to prove mathematical statements are true. If something can be proven with mathematics, it must hold in all cases. From these mathematical "truths" we can build up other mathematical statements which hold true in all cases which are very useful. Here is an article that may be helpful: WHAT ARE MATHEMATICAL PROOFS AND WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT? http://www.math.uconn.edu/~hurley/math315/proofgoldberger.pdf

We like the IP books here. It is true that they start off easier but the challenge really picks up towards the end of the topic sections. Another idea is to use the CWP books. My daughter is nearing the end of the CWP5 book, and the first "practice problems" in each topic are similar to the IPs in that they are easier as well. The actual "Challenging Problems" towards the end of the topic sections are more challenging. The intent is to work the student towards the more challenging problems by building up the difficulty (from what I can tell). The best way I have found to deal with what may be perfectionism is to simply add in more challenging problems slowly and get them used to it. Over time they learn to deal with the frustration of harder problems. Good luck. :)

The appeal to me is that Russian Math 6 is a more formal math program than Singapore is. It has a different tone. Singapore math leaves out more of the formal definitions and keeps things more simply explained. I liked the more formal tone and my daughter had mixed feelings about it. ;) My daughter went into RM6 after Singapore 5. I would normally not recommend skipping Singapore 6, but this particular child is exceptionally good at math. According to my daughter, the only real downside to RM6 was that she thought in parts that it made learning concepts "more complicated than it needed to be". [she made that comment in the adding/subtracting fractions section.] I think this is really due to the more formal tone of the book. She did very well with the book, however. RM6 (like SM IP and CWP) also has very good [in-depth] word problems and even asks students to come up with their own problems to solve which is something new and interesting. As a PP said, there is only an answer key (no solution key) for the first three chapters posted at the Perpendicular Press website, but there are selected other answers in the back. Supposedly there will be answers for the rest or the new addition by the end of the summer. I ended up making my own solution manual for the B section (more challenging) problems because I plan to use this book with my other children eventually and it will save me time. Good Luck. :)

I would have your son take the placement test to be sure. We liked the 1-3 levels of Saxon. I thought the explanations were good. For example, Lesson 134 of Saxon 3 does a good job of explaining long division and is a very good starting point to introduce it (before any algorithms are introduced). The lessons did sometimes take a long time in Saxon 3, so I did eliminate parts of the meeting book often once I knew he understood the concepts. If the language used to convey addition or subtraction is something you find odd in Saxon, you could use your own words or borrow an idea from another curricula you have used. I have always adapted any of the curricula I have used to put it in words I better understand in the hopes that my children will understand the concept. My daughter didn't like Saxon 7/6 but I placed her into a level below where she tested so that may have very well been my own fault, not the Saxon curriculum. If you are seriously thinking about using Saxon for the long term, you may want to get Art Reed's book which contains useful tips. Saxon's pedagogy is unique. It distributes incremental instruction of a concept throughout the lessons. Here is a link to learn more about research done on Saxon: Saxon Link Good luck. :)

:iagree:The IPs are my favorite because of the challenge and the variety. The CWP are also great. ;) To the OP: we use the standards edition and the IPs, so I guess technically we are also using the US edition. I like both. The topics covered are slightly different. Here is a link to the differences in editions: http://www.singaporemath.com/FAQ_Primary_Math_s/15.htm

My recommendation would be Saxon because it is so thorough with a lot of review. I'd have her take the placement test first. Once she feels more confident with that (if it works for her), I would add in Singapore on Fridays, in the summer or wherever you can fit it in. I recommend Singapore because it presents concepts from a different angle and has excellent word problems. I would take extra time for math if she needs to to get her at grade level. Good luck.:)