I just tried one from our library, but it was full of music and sound effects and really overdone voices and such. If I was looking for a radio drama, it would be perfect, but I want something pretty much read straight. A slight change of voice for different characters as is usual with audiobooks is fine but nothing more than that. Does this audiobook of LotR exist?

Okay. I think I really needed this thread. DD13 and math...ugh! "Help me. No, not like that. Come here. Where is my mistake? Don't look at what I'm doing. Explain this. Stop talking....NOW. Can't you see I'm thinking? Where are you going? I still don't understand this problem." Gaaaah!

I can't wait to use Shea's The Language of Composition with my kids.

Delayed until 8th because both of my kids were frustrated by all our attempts: every concept we tried to cover, they wanted to go deeper...and deeper...way past what any elementary or middle school or even high school text could do for us, but they didn't yet have the reading skills for more advanced resources. So with a few short-lived and very unhappy false starts, we essentially delayed. Then in 8th, my older thrived on Zumdahl's Intro Chem entry-level college text, and this year (9th) she is devouring Hewit's entry-level college text Conceptual Physics (to which is added a significant algebra component....appendix F of some editions can help with this). Younger in 7th is begging to do Hewitt next year. So I don't have much long-term perspective yet, but so far so good. We didn't frustrate the heck out of them by making them do science that they found too shallow, and now they are both very enthusiastic (and older already has a good track record). No regrets yet. Just be sure to keep going on math so they are ready for that aspect of science when they do get there.

nm

A little late to the party, but another strong endorsement here. This has been my daughter's best science year yet. The class is very well organized, the labs are great, and the teacher is super nice and responsive. My younger, seeing how much my older has been learning, is asking to do it next year. And don't be fooled by the "conceptual" in the textbook title: this is physics with algebra, the way she teaches it. A good, meaty, but friendly class.

Well, I seem destined to follow behind Tara saying, "Me, too!" We started with the online free one. The one we used had a ton of formatting issues. Not pretty at all. Once we determined it was a keeper, we bought the very version Tara links. It is very nice. Same comments about a few picture issues (not many, though), and same remedies.

More Maxwell puppy love over here. Maxwell has actually given my kid the breakthrough that she desperately needed. We do 1-2 exercises per lesson. Writing the model is actually being very good for my daughter, but I think it would depend on the kid. If my older were using this, I think we might skip those and go right to the other exercises. Use it however works best for your kid. And enjoy!

Reading Literature Like a Professor for Kids. Awesome book!

Thanks a lot, everyone. This is so helpful! I feel like I now have an idea what to aim for with science classes that we want to call "[science] with lab."

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I know there's not an official number, but .... does anyone have an idea bout this? Does it just mean you did a few labs, even if only, say, one per quarter? Or does it mean labs were a large part of the study, like perhaps one per week?

Sparkly, do you mind a quick hijack....can I ask what chem labs you are using? Sounds like they're getting the job done. We need something like that next year.

Totally free. Just sign up; you won't start getting a bunch of "junk" mail. We used it for a year and a half with a small group. We would meet each week, do a RLAH lesson, then the kids would scatter to write an essay based on the lesson and we'd meet the following week to enjoy each other's essays. You can pick and choose lessons--they're all freestanding. It was excellent for critical thinking and reading, good discussions, and meaty essay topics. Plus we have such a perfect memory of each lesson we did. A year later, I could tell you all sorts of things about the explosion of the battleship Maine, or about the political cartoons of Thomas Nast, or about what sharecropper contracts looked like, or whatever. When you work with real documents around a pertinent, real historical question that even "real" historians debate, you just don't forget it. It is a perfect complement to a history spine....you fly over history fast enough to get the context and cover enough ground, and you land here and there to get to know a few specific neighborhoods very, very well. We did nearly all the US History lessons, and I plan to go back to it next year for at least some of the World History lessons. Can't say enough good about this resource. It's worth a lot, lot of money, and yet it's entirely free. Grateful thanks to SHEG.

Stanford Lhistory Education Group's Reading Like a Historian for US or World history. It's excellent for going deep! http://sheg.stanford.edu/rlh

About 2/3 of the way thru WwaT here, with my older and three of her friends in an informal little group. What a good experience it's being! What CA said, plus love how succinct and straightforward the explanations are. I read the introductory section of a chapter, we discuss, I read a few essays that exemplify the focus of the chapter, we discuss/analyze, we do some modeling of how to plan that kind of essay, and then the kids go home to write and come back the next week to share and celebrate their essays. Tea and cookies happen while we talk. Very nice!

Just another enthusiastic vote for Aldrete's HotAW:AGP lecture series. My 7th and 9th graders and I are all loving it this year.

Ah, thanks Momto2Ns and kiana. I learned something new today!

Sorry, Kiana. I'm not quite sure what you mean, though I'd like to. Could you elaborate?

Thanks a lot, EKS and Momto2Ns. That helps!

Also, is it thought to be as rigorous as other standard Alg. 2 texts, like Foerster's? I'd appreciate any perspective anyone has. Thanks!

How to Read Literature Like a Professor for Kids (or there is a more mature one not specifically for kids) is awesome for taking this next step. It's just a book, not a curriculum, but was a game-changer around here. Our public library has it.

I wish I could recommend a geometry text. I wish we'd gone with Jacobs 2nd edition (which is not discovery-based, as is the 3rd edition--this daughter hates discovery-based math). I have it, but decided to go with Chakerian. So although I wish we'd gone with that, I can't speak from experience about whether I actually like it or not. In either case, I underestimated how much we'd need a real, live tutor to correct proofs. Unless your geometry is up to snuff, I'd consider that. I'm pretty confident through Alg. 2/trig or so, but geometry...no way. I thought we could stumble along if we had the MWB program, but now I realize how wrong I was: even if it was a good program, it can't correct my daughter's proofs. There are often multiple correct ways to write a proof, and then there are more- and less-elegant ways, and...well, geometry's just a different beast in some ways. Hth. And I hope your Alg. 1 program works well for you!

EKS...is there a solutions manual for this, or are there just answers in the back? And which Lial are you using? I'm considering getting this as a second option if we don't understand something in Foerster or if we don't like it!

We bought this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0099TOAMW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It is very nice-looking...far nicer than what you download for free. Still loving it, btw!