But--the kids did conceptual chemistry in grade 7. I think it depends on your kid. Chemistry: The Central Science is dense, and I was really glad that I had been through Conceptual Chemistry first (in addition to my own high school and university work). The other advantage of doing CC first is that it gives you the big picture--whereas I found the other book assumed some knowledge of subjects not covered until later in the book.

I think I had looked for, but not found, McGill's requirements. It's not currently at the top of dd's list, but I'm glad to have the information. What I am finding is that they are a lot less interested in this type of info when a student has taken university courses. Or perhaps that's just Ontario universities that are less concerned. Ontario universities traditionally have only looked at the top 6 grade 12 high school course marks--no letters of reference, etc. There is a standard electronic form to fill out, without a lot of room for extra info. I guess I should ask what information they might want if they follow up after receiving the electronic form from a homeschooler.

The third apparently dropped some of the emphasis on proofs--although I think I saw someone say that supplementary material could be downloaded. At any rate--the 2nd works fine if that's what you find.

is often given as an example of a rigorous geometry text. The 2nd edition is sometimes preferred because it has more emphasis on proofs. I used this w/ dd and am currently using it with ds and have been happy.

I'd like to hear from parents who've helped their homeschooled kids negotiate university admissions in Canada. I was under the assumption that I'd need to have all of the things our US colleagues assemble--recommendations, school description, guidance statement, SAT scores, SAT subject scores, etc. I've just checked with U of Waterloo (on the arts side)--they would be happy to base admission on the 6 local university courses dd will have accumulated by that point. They do have an on-line information form that the kids can fill out--but it's not as extensive as what I think is expected in the states. No mention of SATs, etc, although I will double check that. What's your experience--especially with kids who had accumulated some univ. credits while in high school?

Makes me wonder why there's so much emphasis on using graphing calculators at the high school level.

I'm planning to do an introductory calculus course with dd next year. (We might end up doing the equivalent of calculus AP--but we also may go more slowly.) I really like the Thompson/Gardner "Calculus Made Easy" book for it's non-threatening explanations. I also have the calculus book I used 30 years ago. Neither (obviously) have any calculator use. How important is it that we use a graphing calculator? If most universities aren't allowing calculator use, then there's no point in me worrying about it. On the other hand, if dd will be expected to use a graphing calculator in a university-level calculator class, I may want to find another resource that expects graphing calculator use.

I learn best by reading. I don't learn well by listening. However, it never occurred to me that this was a problem in university. I tried to take good notes in lectures (because it helped me to "see" the information) and I relied on my textbooks. . I made sure I had at least one study partner for each class so I could ask questions. I took lots of math, but knew that I wouldn't understand the material until I went home and did problems. (I was basically in class so I would know what was on the exams and pick up bits and pieces that weren't in the text.) When classes were set up so they didn't require attendance, I didn't go. (I had two calculus classes set up that way--finally stopped going--got an A in both classes.) Honestly, it really wasn't a problem for me. I think it would be even less of a problem now that so many teachers are using powerpoint presentations and other visuals.

I'm looking for recommendations for a calculus text for dd. She's math capable but is probably not headed for a high-math field and is not enthusiastic about math. The provincial high school calculus course just covers derivatives. I don't want to try to do a full AP course with dd, but I would like to get her started--present the big pictures--cover some of the details--make it easier to take a university level calculus course if she needs to do it. Maybe even convince her that calculus is fun. I was planning to use Foerster (we're currently using his pre-calculus book), but I'm wondering if there's a better option if we don't want to do a full AP-level course. Books are best--neither of us likes video courses. Thanks

The expected level for entrance to a university level music program varies by university and by program. "Performance" programs at good music schools can have very high standards--I was looking at one that said that the audition repertoire should be at the associates level. But I've also seen grade 8, 9 and 10 as the suggested level. In general, they are not asking that you already have the piece of paper from the RCM--they are just giving you an indication of what level of piece you are expected to perform at your audition. (You can look up the pieces in the syllabus book.) They also may give recommended theory levels. DD is planning to have grade 10 piano and grade 8 voice--both the performance and the theory/history--done by the end of high school. On her transcript, we will indicate that grades 9 and 10 (with the co requisite theory and history) are university-level courses because the local schools would give grade 12 credit for grade 8 RCM in piano. It is a lot of work--but it's also giving her exam taking and audition practice and a goal--both good things to have when homeschooling.

I think I'd leave time for him to teach you something he's really good at, or time for you both to learn something together that you both know almost nothing about. I'd be concerned about the teaching being primarily you to him--it might be good for his education, but I'm not sure it will be good for your relationship.

Canadian publishers are much stricter about allowing the purchase of teacher's manuals. I once had one convinced to sell me the TM based on a "your excused for homeschooling" letter from the local school board--and then found that the price quoted me was 3 times what it would cost me in the States. Buying used is one of the best solutions, when you can pull it off.

with the book "The Story of Canada" the video series "Canada, A People's History" (from the library) and historical novels. Then we just blend Canadian history into the 4 year world history sequence in high school. The video series would be fine for high school but the book would seem "young" for a highschooler.

I also need to get ds, grade 8, up to speed. If it helps, I checked with a public-school friend, who reassured me that if my son could write good paragraphs this year, he would be on-par with his peers. I appreciated knowing that.

I have the student book and the solution book. This has been enough. (DH and I have lots of years of math and like figuring things out, so we haven't wanted DVDs or other teaching aids.) I think Foerster's problems are challenging and thought provoking.

Lots of people follow Jacobs with Foerster's Alg II and Trig. Some do what we did--just do the alg II from that book, then switch to Foerster's pre-calculus for more in depth trig and the rest of pre-calc. The alg II and trig book predates graphing calculators, whereas the pre-calc book is much newer. I'm glad we switched where we did. I'm sure many other options would work, if this doesn't appeal to you.

About to start w/ ds in 8th this year. Seems to work fine here. The one caution I'd throw out is that dd got bogged down doing alg II in 9th grade. In retrospect, we should have slowed down at that point.

with the Kinetic Books? I've thought about using one of their physics books--but I don't really want to work all of the problems to check dd's work.

I really don't think I can be objective, and I don't think I can accurately write exams that are fair. Besides--if she gets problems wrong or doesn't do as well as we think she can, she needs to redo the work. She'll have grades from some official provincial on-line classes and a few university courses, and she'll have SAT and SAT subject scores. I'm hoping that's enough answer the "how good a student is she" concern of universities.

DD and I have been through logs a couple of times now, and we're about to hit it again in pre-calculus. This time I'm going to get out our slide-rules to see if I can make this more concrete. I just can't seem to hold the concept of logs in my head--even though I've had years and years and years of math. Interestingly, my husband, who used a slide rule in high school, has a good intuitive sense of logs. Too bad I was in the first high school class allowed to use calculators.

Most Canadian universities that I have looked at seem ready to consider students based on whatever information you can give them. Many strongly encourage SAT IIs or some outside courses--but that doesn't mean that you'd have to do SAT IIs or outside courses in all subjects. A very common way into university in this city is to take advantage of the local university's high school program. (They invite "gifted" high school students to take up to two university courses per semester. For some reason they love homeschoolers, so the overhead hassle to get admitted to your first course is very minor.) This provides direct evidence that the student is capable of university-level work. Students either continue at this university or use their track-record to get into another university. I think you can do some "checking the box" work to ease university acceptance while also pursuing the student's interests. In our case, dd will have a fairly traditional core background but a lot more music than would be possible in a public school setting. This means fewer electives, and fewer of the "civics", "careers", etc. "required" courses. I don't think that not having grade 10 civics is going to concern a university when everything else looks good. Even in the core subjects, we aren't following the provincial recommendations. I think kids need more than just Canadian post-war history, for example; and we're doing a US-style math sequence instead of the provincial one. But--I also know lots of hard core unschoolers who have been admitted to university through the "take a few university courses as a special student then apply to go full time" path.

DD finished algebra I in grade 7, and did geometry in grade 8. Geometry (Jacobs) actually went fine, even though she probably didn't have algebra I as well under her belt as she should have. Algebra II was more challenging, so I was glad we had a year of geometry in between to give her brain a bit more time to mature. In retrospect, we probably should have taken more time at algebra II. So--I personally vote for alg I-geometry-alg II for a young student, but that's based on a sample of 1 student. (Jacobs Geometry has algebra I review built in, so there is an ongoing opportunity to cement the alg. I skills.) Continuing the story--we're going to take two years to do pre-calc--she only got half way through the book last year. The bottom line is that her brain just wasn't able to move through pre-calc quickly last year. She has consistently made progress, however, and seems to have finally clicked on trig, so perhaps her brain has caught up. Given my experience, if you do go on to geometry this year, you still may have to slow down at some point in the future. DS (kid #2) has just whipped through algebra I (in grade 7) with no need to backtrack, so we may be dealing with a different situation with him. We'll move on to geometry. He is also making errors, but they are usually because he doesn't write out and then check his answers. I don't think he needs more practice with the concepts--I think he needs problems that are hard enough that he doesn't attempt to do them in his head. I probably need to give him some kind of reward for fully writing out his solution. (Maybe fewer problems if he writes them out.) We'll just play it by ear and slow down when it's clear he's not getting the concepts. I'm prepared to take a year and a half or two years on algebra II if needed. Oh--Jacobs has some solutions in the back of the book and some in the teacher's manual. I don't think they are "worked out"--but that didn't really bother us.

but didn't use it much. I know my kids will do physics again, so I wasn't really sweating doing labs. You might be happier with a guide that doesn't assume specialized equipment. If you search the past few pages of the high school forum, you'll find the discussion about the Georgia chemistry/physics public tv resources. And yes, I definitely would have spent $20 for the teacher's edition.

A week seems like too long.

I had the 3rd edition high school book. The teacher's edition looks just like the student edition except that it has helpful notes and answers in blue and more complete answers in a yellow section in front. ISBN 0201332884 Even though I have a BS in Physics, I was still very glad to have the teacher's edition. Yes, you found Hippocampus. There has also been a discussion lately about physics resources from Georgia public tv--but it appears those have been removed from the website. I'm still following that thread to see what they find out.