I think NEM is probably more difficult than some curricula for a non-mathy parent... but it's not that much more difficult. If you're worried about it though.. I've heard Discovering Mathematics (also Singapore) is a bit more user-friendly and more like Primary.

There are a few different things called "Math Olympiad"... but MOEMS (dot org I think) -- the Math Olympiad for Elementary and Middle School -- is the one I was talking about. Elementary level is 4th-6th grade and Middle School level is 7th and 8th. There's also USAMO (USA Math Olympiad) and IMO (International Math Olympiad) that are definitely high school level, and extremely competitive... They follow a series of exams that start with the AMC 12 or the USAMTS, then the AIME (Invitational Math Exam), then the USAMO, a summer program, and then the IMO. I think the IMO team for the US is only six kids to represent the whole country.... so it's a very competitive sequence that gets one there.

I don't know enough about AoPS prealgebra to say either way (it didn't exist when we were at that point)... but the Mathcounts materials would be perfect if that's what you're aiming for. If she isn't already reasonably strong with problem solving and word problems, you might actually start with the Math Olympiad materials just to get her feet wet. I do like the competition math book already recommended, but I haven't found it to be a particularly good teaching resource for kids who haven't already seen the topics, and especially if she hasn't had Algebra. It's better for review. I used it for my MathCounts team last year, and it has a lot of good problems, but it needed much more teaching than what was in the book.

Do you know what they're using for the ADHD testing? That might actually include some IQ type measures..... Especially if there are quirks and/or potential LDs involved, I do think getting a full slate of tests would be a good idea, just so you know what's what. Basically anytime a parent thinks there's something going on that they can't tease out themselves from regular day-to-day contact, I think it's time for some numbers.

I've always had a TV, and enjoyed it. It's not on all day and all night (or even large portions of either), but DS finds it a pleasant way to wake up in the morning (not in his room - he comes to the living room and watches a show before breakfast), and we all have a few favorite programs we watch regularly. We still play board games and sit around chatting and spend plenty of time with a nice quiet house. But I do like the option of a TV show when I'm in the mood for that. We've spent the last month in an apartment with a cheaper "tier" of cable, so most of our favorite shows aren't available... and I do miss them. It won't kill me, but they're fun and I'll be happy to have them back when we move again.

That's the only one I can think of off the top of my head.... Otherwise if you keep records as though you'll need them, it should be easy to make the decision right up to the fall of 11th grade.

I think it's been mentioned here quite a lot.... If I can turn up a thread or two I'll post them here. DS has done Spanish 1 and 2 with them and I've been impressed. It's not knock-your-socks-off fabulous, but it's solid, covers what it needs to, includes reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and he has had good retention. I especially like that the scheduling is flexible. We have times of the year when there's plenty of time for Spanish, and times when there just isn't. It's no problem. And the fact that he took almost 12 months to get through Spanish 2 :001_huh: (not because it was that hard - because of scheduling issues on our end -- moving 500 miles away, etc.) wasn't a problem for the OSU people. We're about to start Spanish 3. I've heard it isn't quite as good as 1 & 2, but it looks fine from what I've seen. They cover almost all the grammar you need in the first two years, so the third appears to be much heavier on reading. ETA: I found a few threads, and I've tagged them, and this one, as "osu spanish" so you should be able to find them by clicking the tag at the bottom of this page.

Annenberg has "Against All Odds" on Learner.org -- free streaming videos, and the textbook is pretty easy to find cheap. But you know.... there isn't really a statistics class that's less than AP. I don't want to minimize the work involved, but it might not be as scary as it sounds. If you have Algebra 2 behind you (logs in particular) it's really more application than it is additional math.

Putting Counting & Probability with Number Theory makes a good pair for a year... They complement each other very well, and "flesh out" each other's techniques. DS did them simultaneously as classes, which was really intense, schedule-wise... I don't think I'd recommend that generally, but running both of them in a year-long course would be excellent. If your DS isn't a fan of Geometry, I don't know that I'd do AoPS for that... it covers quite a bit more than is strictly necessary, and you could easily go with something else and not be lacking. We haven't done their Geometry ourselves; we did the relevant chapters of Singapore NEM before moving on to AoPS later... but I have the book. I think at some point we might go through and pick up the parts that he hasn't seen elsewhere, or that he could use more time on.... or we might just keep it as a reference. I don't know what format they use for proofs, although I would tend to think they'd use something more narrative... Everything in AoPS is a proof, really... but even in the classes they don't go with a set structure. Another geometry you might find more entertaining is Zome. It's pricy because you have to buy all the kits, but it does make a really good geometry course. It's been a while now... I don't remember if it covers as much of the "standard" stuff (triangles) as most... but it does require all the critical thinking and spatial reasoning I'd expect from geometry.

We've done AP Statistics (he's taking the exam this May), and I'm preparing our syllabus for Environmental Science next year.. but both of those are fairly stand-alone... there's no "pre-ap" Statistics or Environmental Science to precede them.... And I hadn't really looked at Physics, but figured we'd cobble together what we'd already done in bits and pieces, take a swing through a text and go through a prep book for the SAT2. DS wants to do more electronics, but he's got a lot of regular Physics behind him already.... Now that I'm looking at the AP Physics B course description it's not much more than what I already had planned! Hmmmm... maybe I'll throw together a syllabus for that too and see what falls out...... :D

I kind of like the Environmental Science one... just because I think that if it's well done it can be a good foundation for the rest. I know that's not the standard approach, but because Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary course, including biology, chemistry, and physics... plenty of earth science... some behavioral science... politics and law interacting with science.... I like the idea of doing it first before the pure sciences, just to establish and hopefully keep in mind that even pure science does not exist in a vacuum, and that messy people are involved in the whole thing. :) On the other hand, with the time pressure of college/ service academy applications and a specific requirement you want to meet, it might be a luxury you don't want to spend a year on.... And if you already have a family hobby of earth sciences you could save school time for the things you need on the transcript, and pursue fossils and insects in your free time.

An annual science fair project of DS's choosing has been central to our year ever since he was in kindergarten. I should warn you... (lol) Every year they get a little bigger... and we still do a complete textbook curriculum for science too... so science has gotten to be a Really Big Thing around here. :) I had a similar realization.... I had thought of DS as "not really fond of writing" except that it was never a problem when it was science fair writing... even when the science fair writing was at really enormous length! I applied some of what I recognized from that to his other writing, too.... There are a few things that I think make the difference... The science project is a topic he chose, that he knows inside and out by the time he's producing a paper, and that he has his own data on. Those all help... but also I think that the idea of approaching a subject with your own question, rather than casting a net for whatever is out there, leads to a much better use of the resources. So to apply it to history, it's like the difference between a paper addressing "What do you know about the colonial era" versus one on "What did Roanoke have to do with the Anglo-Spanish war?" The first is a good broad assignment, but a terrible paper... getting to the second one (or another like it) involves the kid reading enough to stumble upon something intriguing, and then pursuing it until he's satisfied. And then he's ready to write!

I bet it's because some courses could be taught on a block schedule, only starting in January. There aren't a lot I'd do that way, but I know Statistics is one that can fit reasonably into a semester.

I'm on their email list, and all through December there were reminders about the deadling coming up. So I think that's the regular schedule. Of course if you started teaching and then it wasn't approved you'd be rather up a creek...

Once DS knew the positions of the keys we stopped using the typing program, and I made him a card with the keyboard (colored in to remind him which fingers went with which block of keys) and he typed. A lot. That made a whole lot more difference than the games and exercises.

there is a very real risk... but if there is no risk, then even succeeding becomes trivial. And that's exactly what I want to avoid.

DS did C&P and Number Theory, plus some cryptography materials on the side... and we called it Discrete Math 1.

I'm not saying throw them in where they'll crash and burn, but make sure that it takes their best work to win (or get an A). And then expect their best work. Taking high school exams early is a good example -- there wouldn't be any point in waiting until they were really trivial - do them as soon as you can reasonably expect the A with effort, and then put in the effort. If I left DS in his age grade for science competitions, he'd have been putting some serious statistical analysis (linear and polynomial regressions, tests of significance, multivariable analysis) against third graders. That wouldn't have been fair, and what's more, there wouldn't have been any point! Yes, he has come in 2nd or 3rd against older kids - I honestly don't think there's a college out there that's going to rule him out based on that... And along the way he's done extremely well at the higher grade, and turned even the "losses" into opportunities he wouldn't have had if he hadn't been involved at that level. But it's not a solid wall of 1st prizes. The other reason for this has nothing to do with colleges. If DS were stuck with age peers, in some cases he could seriously just "phone it in" and get an award. We don't do that. If that means he doesn't have the perfect college application? Fine. If I kept him in easy competitions that he could win with his eyes closed all the way through K-12, what kind of kid would I have in the end? He would never have learned to work hard, he would never have learned to lose with grace, he would never have stretched outside his comfort zone... And at that point we'd have bigger problems than college admissions to deal with.

I don't think I would respond at all! Who cares so much about winning an Easter basket contest that they wouldn't enter if they knew there were better ones? I mean it's really just supposed to be fun, right?? sheesh... Now if you were talking about something academic, of the "put this on your resume" variety (and sure, I guess there are those that would put "2nd grade - won Easter basket contest" on their resume, but we'll assume that's not even on the table...) I mean something like science fairs, math exams, essay contests, spelling bees.... that sort of thing. In those cases, I aim to to keep DS at a level where he could lose. Really, what I think is impressive on the college applications isn't the "1st place elementary division" as much as the "look at this project I did, which was seriously my best work possible, even though it came in 3rd in a division I was young for" But someone who gets bent out of shape over an Easter basket contest is just going to get a raised eyebrow from me... I don't think there is an appropriate answer to that one!

I really like Pimsleur. It's fairly painless, and gets you a lot of useful vocabulary and grammatical structures pretty quickly. It's not a grammar course, but I think it's a better start than Rosetta Stone that way. For the alphabet/ script, you can get a workbook at the bookstore (Barnes & Noble?)... and for a little more "something" than Pimsleur, I actually like the Penguin Course... It's not tremendous, but it will get you somewhere... and it's reading/writing, which complements the Pimsleur listening/speaking practice very nicely.

Learn something new every day... ;)

If they just mean "reacts" then I think replacing three letters with one is just lazy. But on the other hand... chopping off the end of a word and replacing it with an x isn't new... medical abbreviations do that, like dx for diagnosis and hx for history... (Just don't make me explain Rx for prescription... lol)

Not a popular answer... but lots and lots of practice. DS is never going to have the world's most fabulous handwriting (not a priority), but my observation has been that there is a direct and immediate relationship between how much he writes and how well he writes. The biggest improvement was when he was barely-seven and had to copy about 1000-1500 words in a week, as neatly as he could, for a science fair board. You could actually see the improvement from the top left to the bottom right. He didn't enjoy it, but he had to admit that handwriting was much easier by the end. Since then, the same thing has held true. When he doesn't write much, he doesn't write well. And when he increases the volume of writing, it's neater, faster, and easier.

because one is for spices and I don't like clove-chipotle-caraway coffee... :D

When DS was trying to take too many notes (and full sentences or paragraphs...) I started assigning a single paragraph of writing after whatever it was - textbook chapter, or class, or research activity... and asked that his notes contain only enough to write that one paragraph. So he needed to write down single words that he needed to remember (or spell), formulas, and key points. The perfect notes after a two hour research activity (river ecology) would be a short list of the tests they did and their results, and two words reminding him about things the teacher pointed out. The key, though, is that he also needed to write that paragraph, either directly after the class or at least the same evening. This is kind of like the Cornell method (which I use myself) where you write your basic notes in one section, but follow it up with summaries and questions at the bottom of the page. So DS's final notes would be the list of key points and words, followed by a longer paragraph connecting them all and discussing the chapter or class in more detail. What I really liked about this approach is it kept him from spending too much time on notes when he needed to be engaged in the class, but it gave him a good outline to write from when he had the time.