I was wondering about this because the German (or what used to be West German police) police did not/does not use Uzies. Never mind I find that story for a number of reasons unlikely. As an American he would most likely not have grown up in East Germany though.

When I was little in the ancient times we used the mini-Luk up to 2nd grade and the big one after that. When mine were little I started them on the mini-Luk at the preschool stage and switched to the bigger one between K and 2nd grade depending on the kid.

Mom, I have the teacher guide/solution manual but have never actually used it. I am a little OCD when it comes to have complete sets. The solution manual isn't really what most of us are used to, it is a compilation of how students have solved the problems. I will say that I have read it and frequently look at it just because I find it interesting how different children approach a problem. My inkling is that most of us can teach with just the student text.

I use AOPS sequentially and find the corresponding chapter in JA (I only have the first volume right now and he is doing pre-algebra with AOPS). I introduce the topic with JA and go through the unit. He is a whole to parts learner and understands the concept generally speaking fairly easily so it doesn't take us long and it helps him move through AOPS faster because he already understands the concept but AOPS takes it to a higher level. The hands-on activities make a huge difference in his understanding. Now that he has understood the concept, he is ready to "theorize" with AOPS. He loves AOPS but it poses a definite language problem for him, JA is his translator. When we are done with a concept/chapter I have him write the Notes to Self. He does all the problems in AOPS and most Challenge Problems. Where MM is concerned I again follow the sequence of MM but here JA expands on MM rather than being the baseline. She does well with math but JA is less "formulaic" in my opinion, it dwells more on explaining in words what the student does than MM. She does a topic in MM and then we follow up in JA so there is definitely more jumping around because the sequence is so different. If she continues at her present pace, she will finish MM5 and 6 this year in 5th grade but I am not sure that next summer she will be ready for a straight pre-algebra text where maturity is concerned. JA with its language style allows me to slow her down a little with all its "Whys?" and " What do you think?" questions and have her work at a higher level. Her biggest issue is that she understands the concept, she understands why the concept works but she doesn't always quite know why SHE does the things she does other than "it's what the sample in MM shows" or "that's how it's done". The beginning of JA was great for her, "How do you know you know?". It really made her question herself as to why she did things and see that there is a difference between knowing and understanding. Diane

I have been using for a few months with my two youngest (then 4th and 6th grade). My children and I love it because it is discovery based, not distracting in its outlay, incorporates hands-on activities, allows my son to move and makes may daughter think. We all appreciate the light tone and the way historical characters and events are a make-up of many problems (leads to lots of discussions). I use it in conjunction with AOPS for my son and Math Mammoth for my daughter. Both of my kids are strong math students. My son is a visual-spatial-kinesthetic learner on the very end of the spectrum, my daughter does well but is "brain" lazy, she does not like think or put effort into her work. JA makes her think and the way it is worded makes the pill go down much easier, she actually does enjoy it especially when she gets through the problem before her brother does. I personally have no problem to adapt the class activities to our rather small group. JA does not work well for my Aspie 8th grader who prefers straight, frontal instruction. The humor is lost on him, he hates any hands-on activity (yes, we are having a swell time with science labs :crying: ) and has little patience with the language approach. I personally also like the fact that it comes in three books rather than one thick one, makes it easier to handle for me. The customer service is fantastic, we had some major issues with math in this house when we began homeschooling a year ago and Linus has been a lot of help. Their newsletter is wonderful and we used several activities already. Feel free to pm me if you have specific questions. Diane

Our oldest (18) wants to study law and go into politics, the 14 year old wants to study Computer Science and have his own IT company, 12 year old wants to be a chef or a programmer, and my precious baby girl at 10 wants to be a firefighter :thumbup1:

My two older ones were dry between 4 and 5, the youngest one at around 11. It got remarkably better when we moved and he changed, worse in 5th grade which was a horrible experience for him and stopped completely when we began homeschooling. I figure it was stress related.

Bummer, I thought that attitude was due to my children spending too many years in public school and the notion that everything is too dangerous unless properly supervised by an adult.

California automatically admits the top 9% of high school students as long as they meet the minimum requirements for admission (which aren't all that rigorous in my opinion). He probably never went through a thorough admission process due to his standing in high school. The only caveat is that the student may not be admitted to the campus of his choice but he must be admitted within the system.

I end explicit writing instruction in 8th grade with the exception of a short excursion into writing for the SAT and job applications. They will do a year long research paper in 11th or 12th grade but that has more to do with teaching how to organize and process information over a long time than teaching writing. When they reads literature they write after they are done reading but they annotate and take notes while they read. They still have to write in other subjects.

Martha, said 9th grader would typically enter a three year apprenticeship in a trade. The cost of apprenticeships plus the the salary are paid for by the company. Sometimes the student goes on at school. My brother did not do well in school and hated it. He graduated after 9th grade but at the age of 15 found out that what he wanted to do was not possible with that diploma. He decided that maybe school did serve some purpose, buckled down, added the 10th grade and did well. He entered his apprenticeship and finished three years later with distinction and best apprentice in his field in his state. After that he attended a specialized school in his field for another two years and has been working ever since. Here in the US he would have been in special ed and most likely a drop-out. Apprenticeships are usually done locally and the students live at home. Every once in a while a child decides to learn something where there are only a few companies so the student has to move there. Sometimes the employer offers housing, sometimes children stay with someone (family, friend) and in rare cases they are on their own. Parents are financially responsible until the student either finishes his apprenticeship or his course of study at a university. If the child decides to do nothing after the age of 18, parents are absolved from their obligation to support. Generally speaking yes, parents are responsible for children under the age of 18. Universities do not charge tuition and most students are eligible for support through the government plus parental obligation is tied to income and other factors. Family background and demographics influence the educational path quite a bit. However, education is free and open to anyone so it is the family's and student's responsibility to make something out of it. Children of immigrants do not often attend a gymnasium for a number of reasons (particularly girls from mid-eastern or African countries are a rare find), children from working class families also have a harder time both due to family influence as well as perception by teachers and resulting lower grades.

May the force be with you! Hubby is coming back today and oh, did I mention we are pcs'ing to the other coast in less than a week? :driving:. Best wishes and always look at the bright side of life... dadum, dadum, da da da da da dum....

When I talk about time, I talk about pure academic work/instructional time. My 8th grader does about 4.5 to 5 full 60 minute hours a day. This translates into roughly 6 45 minute sessions 5 days a week. It does not include breaks, P.E. and hands-on subjects like studio art, music practice and such. I cannot imagine him having a 7 to 8 hour day in this context.

But, I don't really like English...too broad. That's the beauty of it :-) Where are my emoticons?

My form says only name is required, birthdate, grade and zoned school are optional info. I listed subjects just like you did with the exception that I wrote English instead of Language Arts. I can't stand that term.

My son has the same thing. I know it was a blood blister because I saw it, he never noticed it.

In high school chemistry we never left our seats, if there was a demonstration by our teacher up front we got to watch it, nothing more. I was a science major in college, I saw my professor three times a week for a lecture in a room with about 600 students (chem for science majors), the labs were run by TA's and there were about 30 of us. Yes, we did the labs but I don't think the TA lost sleep over any of us. Farther up the ladder I did chem labs with a couple of other gals because for some odd reason hydrology and all my other -ologies and -ies weren't that interesting to guys or so it seemed. Personally I think she is way over the top. Most students take chemistry because it is a required class not because they truly care about the intricacies of it. I am going through the Illustrated Guide with my 6th grader because he wanted to "do real" chemistry and I happen to like it. We have a nicely equipped lab at home (minus the bunsen burner and hood) and I think my son is getting a much better education in chemistry than most PS kids. I have no worries he will not make it in college (if he gets that far - yes, it was one of THOSE days). Relax, have some chocolate, breathe deeply, and carry on.

Thank you all for replying. I thought it was fishy, this is an old (how about longtime friend, she is my age and I will never be old :laugh:) friend of mine, I know she isn't fishing for money. She just read "arrest" and "jail" and being a single mom with several kids it sent her into a tizzy. I told her what you all wrote and she is a little more composed. She is going to call the court tomorrow to start and then she'll go from there.

I have a quick question. If someone has an outstanding medical bill from 12 years ago that they were told at the time Medicaid would pick up the difference between insurance and the total bill and have never received a notice that they need to pay the difference themselves, is it normal procedure that this person goes to jail? I always thought even if the original bill was not paid, there would be reminders to pay and eventually it would go into collections. None of this has happened and this person just received a notice from a courthouse that there is a warrant for her arrest out until the bill is paid. I find this very odd, any experiences with a situation like that? I don't think it matters per se but it was a private practice, the person in Native American, had insurance through her employer but was below poverty level.

I am in the same boat. I will consider next year the second 8th grade and then start high school after that continuing the sequences where applicable (i.e Latin 2)

We are schooling year round. I figure if they spend 3 or 4 hours a day doing school things in the summer that still leaves them with 21 per day hours for everything else.

It is teacher intensive in that if you don't have several children you need to participate in the discussion and some projects to make it fun (it was written for a classroom). It is not teacher intensive in terms of you having to learn the material ahead of time as it is written to the student and well explained. To be honest, I am having as much fun with this curriculum as my kids do and math is a subject I do with them anyways because they need me to sit with them for a variety of reasons.

A petrographic microscope, travel with The Lukeion Project for the 5 of us and a cook.

I think we will have a redo of 8th grade due to a number of issues but his classes will be primarily high school level. English: Laurel Tree Tutorials - HS Composition, probably Hake Grammar 8, he is an avid reader across the spectrum Math: Redo Pre-Algebra and Algebra1 Physics: Conceptual Physics History: German History from 1700-1914 Latin 1A: Lukeion German: age appropriate literature, writing (he will do some of his assignments in German), continue to speak German Computer Science: AoPS Java Programming Extracurricular: Fencing, Toastmasters and/or DeMolay

I don't really have a schedule. We do math just about every day (seven days a week) and continue through breaks and vacations in 45 minute increments. Sometimes we do two sessions per day and sometimes a session goes on all afternoon because he argues some fine point with his sister or a friend. I don't cut those discussions off but I do not put them down as "math" either because they are not instructional. Then there are days where we start a lesson, get completely sidetracked because of some historical or scientific reference (had to read up on Galileo, duels... before we continued the math lesson). I tend to start with JA and then follow up with AoPS because AoPS is more in depth. Chapters only covered by one book I insert where I think they fit best. Every once in a while I combine the two books into one session (negation (AoPS) and negative numbers (JA) is one example. I like doing it this way because it gives us a structure but we can deviate from it. I have to grab my son whenever his interest is high and that means we sometimes do things out of sequence (for example negative numbers). It was much easier to do when he really wanted to learn because he was talking with a friend about them than if I had told him to wait a few days because it was not on the schedule that day. He is not a linear thinker, definitely a whole to parts learner. He does only 1 or 2 Alcumus problems a day. Take care, Diane