Thanks for posting this. I had written off Thinkwell as way too expensive for next year. What I don't understand from the webpages is whether we can choose when we start the clock rolling on the 12 month access. Do you know? And for anyone else out there--we are planning on doing either an AP or an honours level chemistry course next year. I'm currently dithering between the Zumdahl and the Brown & Lemay texts. Does anyone have any experience using Thinkwell in these situations? I don't really want to do without a text because I want dd to be able to refer back to her text after the Thinkwell access is over.

That suggests being strategic about when you "graduate" your kid.

DD took 2 on-line official grade 9 provinicial courses when she was chronologically in grade 8. She did algebra I in grade 7 and geometry in grade 8. I plan to put all of the above on her transcript. In the States, people might know that if she took algebra 2 in grade 9, she had already had algebra 1 and geometry. They won't necessarily know that here because the math system is different. Her early grade 9 work will show up on the partial provincial transcript I will include with her "homeschool" transcript. DD will still have 4 years of true high school math, English, history, French, etc.--so I suppose, if needed, I could put her early high school work in a "for information, not counted as credit" section. Many kids do a full or partial 2nd year of grade 12 here, so Canadian high schools must not have "only the past 4 years" rules. Maybe someone else has info on this? My question: how do you handle "only courses taken in the past four years" if your child takes a gap year to travel or to take a few university credits and work?

nt

Even more alarming--the "Canadian history from WWI on" course is the only required history course in Ontario! So much for raising our children to be world citizens. I don't think you'll be unhappy with "Story of Canada"--even if it's only something you use as a family reference. If your kids are strong readers, you could have them read Pierre Burton's books! I didn't think I could ask that of grade 7 and 8 kids--but we'll do it when we circle back to more recent history in high school. Catherine Parr Trail's books about frontier life are also interesting--but intense. Amazon.com has quite a collection of Candian History books--including a "Canadian History for Dummies" by Will Ferguson. Not very academic--but sometimes I think not-very-academic history sticks better. Oh--here's an idea--these folks: http://www.voyageurpublishing.ca/ attend our local homeschooling vendor's fair. They sell a wide collection of books about Canadian history and are quite friendly. They don't have much of their stuff out on their website, but apparently still have a print catalog--which I happen to have. They seem to be recommending "Spotlight Canada" as a text for twentieth century history. The authors of that book have also written "Flashback Canada" which appears to be earlier history. "Contact Canada" appears to cover Canadian geography (the required grade 9 class). My guess is that they'd be happy to talk to you by phone or by e-mail and may have suggestions (see their website for contact info).

Even more alarming--the "Canadian history from WWI on" course is the only required history course in Ontario! So much for raising our children to be world citizens. I don't think you'll be unhappy with "Story of Canada"--even if it's only something you use as a family reference. If your kids are strong readers, you could have them read Pierre Burton's books! I didn't think I could ask that of grade 7 and 8 kids--but we'll do it when we circle back to more recent history in high school. Catherine Parr Trail's books about frontier life are also interesting--but intense. Amazon.com has quite a collection of Candian History books--including a "Canadian History for Dummies" by Will Ferguson. Not very academic--but sometimes I think not-very-academic history sticks better. Oh--here's an idea--these folks: http://www.voyageurpublishing.ca/ attend our local homeschooling vendor's fair. They sell a wide collection of books about Canadian history and are quite friendly. They don't have much of their stuff out on their website, but apparently still have a print catalog--which I happen to have. They seem to be recommending "Spotlight Canada" as a text for twentieth century history. The authors of that book have also written "Flashback Canada" which appears to be earlier history. "Contact Canada" appears to cover Canadian geography (the required grade 9 class). My guess is that they'd be happy to talk to you by phone or by e-mail and may have suggestions (see their website for contact info).

but it might be hard to get in the States. It's quite easy to get from the library here. It would be over $500 to purchase. There are two books that follow the series, however--I wonder if they would be helpful (and possibly available through interlibrary loan for review.) There's also a nice website about the series, which includes information for teachers.

I'd let him brush up on his skills using Aleks. The free month-long trial might be enough. It will target anything he's uncertain about and won't bore him with stuff he already knows. We did this between geometry and algebra II and we may do it again between algebra II and pre-calc.

We did Canadian history in grades 7 and 8 using Janet Lunn's "The Story of Canada" as a spine. We added in Canadian historical fiction for each period. This book would be a little simple for an older high schooler, but it is comprehensive in scope and very accessible. If you don't get any better ideas, you could use it as a launching pad for independent research projects. Grade 10 Canadian history is required in Ontario. Here's a link to the approved text books: http://www.curriculum.org/occ/trillium/resources/Canadian_and_World_Studies_10.shtml#CHC2D I don't know anything about these.

Actually, we did the first chapter of Jacobs Geometry at the end of grade 7. Then we did the rest of the book in grade 8. No problems.

I am not a natural speller. I depend on spell-checkers--and used to depend on a dictionary. However--having watched my kids do spelling with "Spelling Power", I wonder if I could have been a better speller had I also been taught with the multi-sensory approach. "Spelling Power" has the kids practice words they misspell in 10 different ways--we just used the "look and try to remember" method.

I've now used both the pre-algebra and the algebra MUS honors books. They are good additions to the program but I would consider them "standard" rather than "honors." DS used MUS Algebra I with the honors book, then moved on to Jacobs' Geometry and is now doing Foerester's Algebra and Trig. I don't feel we did any damage by not switching streams earlier, and I don't feel she has unduly struggled. We switched because I wanted to do a proof-intensive geometry class and because I thought the dryness of MUS didn't suit her personality. I think you have to consider what is going to work for you and your kid. MUS is very easy to use, and I think some (but not all) of it's explanations are brilliant. I have found that both Jacobs and Foerster's take more work on my part. I think some kids will do better with the sparse layout of MUS. Because I'm confident about teaching math and have "wordy" kids, we'll continue with Jacobs and Foerster. I have a friend who uses MUS at home for the basics and then sends her daughter to a math class with a tutor who emphasizes problem solving. This also seems like a reasonable approach. Even with the honors book, I think MUS is weak on applications and the more complicated word problems. I think MUS Geometry is weak on proofs--but you may not care about that if you are doing lots of logic in some other way. Other books contain more material--although I suspect many classroom teachers don't cover all of that material. BTW--another poster mentioned the MUS Algebra/Geometry book. This is an old version. I have used the old versions of MUS too, and found the revisions much improved. If you go with MUS, I would definitely use the newer books.

I'd add Jacobs to your list, particularly if you have a kid who likes words and/or a kid who really appreciates jokes. Jacobs recommends Foerster for algebra II.

It's a "super senior" year here, at least informally. High school used to be 5 years in Ontario, and both parents and schools are encouraging kids to take an extra year now if it would help to get the courses they need in. Things are a little different in that we don't have the same cc system. (CCs are for technical degrees, not for college prep. You go to the adult high school if you need a course before university.)

If your son isn't up to speed on all of the possibilities available in either mechanical engineering or engineering mechanics, you'd be doing him a huge favour to help him check out this option. I thought MEs designed cars--and I knew I didn't want to do that.

Get a sasters degree in mechanical engineering and work in the energy conservation field. It would have been more straightforward to get a bs in me directly. Physics at the upper undergraduate level and graduate level is very different from high school physics--I wish someone had helped me understand that earlier. The abstract stuff that fascinated my fellow students didn't interested me.

Hmm . . . I would consider my dc gifted but not independent learners. DD is grade 9 age and requires quite a bit of my time. I do see great strides over this year, however, so I'm very hopeful that I won't need to continue to provide this level of support. However, she is one who likes to talk and interact--and because she doesn't have a classroom full of people to do that with, I need to help meet that need. Until she's talked about something, I can't be sure she's mastered a concept. I don't know how I'd manage the number of kids you are working with--hopefully others will help with that. I just wanted to let you know that inability to work independently doesn't always mean not academically talented!

and we'll do 1/4 of it each year. We use the "focus questions" for short answer responses and the website that goes with the book. We add in good documentaries (PBS has quite a few) and other stuff of interest. Usually she writes something at the end of each chapter in the book--often on something she's particularly interested in. I'll expect more as she gets older. The book was a bit of a stretch at the beginning of the year, but she seems to be getting the hang of it.

We had a great year w/ Jacob's geometry. I would describe myself as left-brained, dd considers herself right-brained. Both of us like the book. It may be that Jacob's appeals to right-brained kids more than most math books--which is why I picked it. DD appreciated the cartoons, stories and jokes. Not all math books are as engaging. However, I felt it was a very thorough, logical presentation--that worked well with my left-brained approach to math.

Both of the local universities appear to be using "Chemistry" by Chang for their first year chemistry course. It would be easy for me to pick up a 2nd hand copy. Does anyone have any experience with using this for a do-it-yourself AP course? Any thoughts on whether it's important to use the latest version? I have a copy out from the library (edition 7) and think it's readable but not visually very grabbing.

DD started taking high school on-line classes when she was 13. Learning to write the short (1-2) page reports that seem to constantly be required for these on-line classes has been an involved process. (She is very comfortable writing creatively--but much less comfortable writing reports.) I'll start ds off on short non-fiction pieces sooner.