Because they are covered does not mean emphasis is placed on them or on understanding them. Please note, I am not blaming the teachers nor even the students. I am blaming a system that is designed to bring everyone up to mediocrity and no higher, which encourages teaching monkey-see monkey-do memorization in order to get them a just high enough score on the exam in order to move to the next grade and so on. I think that your ideas -- 1) covering the second half of algebra 1 and 2) putting emphasis on understanding are both good ideas and will help set your son up for success both in the honors algebra 2 and beyond.

Usually suspension rather than dismissal. But yeah, it will cause issues applying to other schools. One way back in that many have used is: Step 1) part-time enrollment at community college and some good grades there. Step 2) reapplying for admission to a college with an application that basically says "hey, those grades, yeah, that was a while ago and I was depressed, but I've been holding down a job for a while and here's some good grades from community college and recommendation letters from my professors there". With respect to student loans, that boat has sailed -- she won't get a refund at this point in the semester, so assuming the student loan money has already been spent, she IS liable and will need to start repayment in about 6 months after leaving.

I agree with Crimson Wife. It MAY be evidence that he needs a gentler transition, but it's too early to tell. However, rather than giving him the answer and explaining it to him, I would recommend giving hints. For an example of this specific problem: I would start with 2 - 5 - 2, or something like that. Then 17 - 23 - 17. This way you can see if he can see what's going on when the numbers are simpler.

Mark, how far did he get through the Saxon Alg 1? Completing the square is (according to the TOC I found) in lesson 104 and the quadratic formula in 110. A student who actually understands completing the square should be able to derive the formula if needed. One big problem I see is that my students have dutifully memorized the quadratic formula, but have little to no understand of what it actually implies -- for example: that if you get x = 1 and x = -3 the quadratic factors into c(x-1)(x+3), where c is a constant factor, and the quadratic in question will, if graphed, cross the x-axis at 1 and -3 on the other hand, if you get a non-rational pair of roots from a quadratic with rational coefficients, the quadratic in question does not factor over the rational numbers, however, it will still factor into c(x - root 1)(x - root 2) and thus cross the x-axis at those roots while if you get a negative number under the radical, the quadratic in question will only factor over the complex numbers, and will not cross the x-axis at all if graphed.

Yep, unschooled more than homeschooled, with the exception of math.

While it's smart to keep this on your radar, your dd may totally change by the time she hits high school. I wouldn't worry about it until she's 1-2 years away from needing it. More stuff is getting published and/or updated every year, so while buying books for english/humanities is perfectly reasonable (a good home library is a wonderful thing), I wouldn't worry about picking up math too far in advance, and I'd actively avoid picking up science books until you guys are a little closer to using them. As far as 'gap years', quite honestly, there's *nothing* wrong with being a hs junior who has already completed the hs requirements and is now dual enrolling. The universities will see only a student who has done accelerated coursework. They don't need to see whether you (on paper only) repeated 8th grade while doing 9th grade coursework or even higher, or whatever.

Talking to the professors to see if there's any possible way to pass is a good step. At this point in the semester, the professors should have enough information to give her an honest assessment. I have had several conversations this week where I explained to people that at this point, there simply was no way to get a 'C'. I think withdrawing from the ones she can't possibly pass is probably a better option than taking the 'F', and maybe it will be less overwhelming than a full slate of classes to try to complete just a few. I doubt an incomplete would be an option if she hasn't been there yet, but a medical withdrawal could be a possibility, even late. I'm going to continue with a personal story that I don't usually share. I went away to school as a freshman and ended up in a very similar situation to your niece. I didn't go to class for weeks and failed out. After that I went and got a rather menial job and worked for a few years. I saved money, got my stuff together, moved out for a while, moved back in, and decided that this wasn't the job I wanted to work in for the rest of my life. I went back to school, did my undergraduate, then my master's, then my phd, and now I'm a professor at a university. Failing out of college is not the end of the world.

Not only do I still have one, but I did some 60+ mile bike rides on my single-speed Huffy last summer ;)

I will also add that: If your son finds AOPS *too* challenging (many students find going from a computational program to a more reasoning-based program challenging), another option to build reasoning and problem-solving skills would be supplementing Saxon's pre-algebra with Jousting Armadillos. If you chose to do this, I *would* keep working through the Saxon. Not that you shouldn't try AOPS. Just that if it's too hard, JA would probably be a good transition.

I *still* have one.

When I said overkill, I meant that if you were doing AOPS, doing Saxon *as well* would be overkill.

Congratulations to her -- and kudos to you for giving her the freedom to spread her wings :)

I do stay logged in, so it wouldn't affect me anyway. I would highly appreciate monitoring of the ads, though -- many sites with ads (even non-popup ones) allow Malware ads to slip in -- I even acquired one (or would have if my AV hadn't caught it) from a nutrition website's ad.

I agree with everyone else who says that they'd TRY dropping the Saxon completely and going with AOPS. Unless he really needs the drill, the Saxon is going to be complete overkill. If you really, really didn't want to do that, I'd look into supplementing with the AOPS problem solving books and the number theory/discrete math books, as well as some books from the IMACS elements of mathematics (which has also already been mentioned) rather than trying to do two complete curricula.

As far as typing, I'd disconnect the computer from the internet if the off-task behavior is web-based.

This will be covered again in precalculus and probably in algebra 2. I do not consider it necessary for algebra 1, nor, honestly, do I consider it desirable except as an enrichment topic for students who need more challenge. ETA: This algebra book has the strangest, strangest order I have ever seen. Quadratics before teaching adding and subtracting polynomials? Quadratics before radicals?

If he's passing AOPS Calculus, I don't see a point to dual enrolling unless they have a 'calculus with theory' for math majors course. I'd rather continue with AOPS, and if credit is desired, take the AP or possibly an in-house placement exam. Many schools will do credit by examination for calculus 1 + 2 if the AP test is not feasible. When he gets to college, he should talk to the department about whether he should retake all or part of the calculus sequence.

In addition to what Butler said, if your student really likes a school and they don't have a grad program, I'd ask them what they would do with a student who ran out of math classes to take. At my undergrad, I chose to do a semester in the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics when I ran out of courses, but had I not done so, they would have had me taking a full slate of independent study courses with various professors. BSM was a SUPER program btw, I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in theoretical math and can afford it. Well, I couldn't really afford it, but I did it anyway. I'm teaching at a smaller 4-year school without a graduate program, and if we had a student who came in with enough calculus credit that they ran out of courses to take, we would encourage them to take independent study courses. As a matter of fact, I'd love to see such a student because it'd probably be the only chance I ever got to teach a course that's actually in my field. The independent study courses may have an advantage in that a single bright student with a professor can often cover more than a class can, and can be focused around a student's interests (for example, when I had only two students in a class who were both double majors, I focused the applications section of the course heavily around applications to their major).

He sounds a lot like me. I didn't get my times tables memorized and stop using those tricks until calculus. Frankly as long as he has a strategy for computing them I wouldn't worry excessively. If he computes them enough times he'll memorize them. Just don't let him use a calculator. Even when you get to algebra and precalculus, calculators should only be used for problems that require them, and even then only at the final step.

Also, very few people will have prior exposure to SPSS. I don't think lack of prior knowledge will be a handicap. I wouldn't worry about trying to get into it to get a jump on the college class. Getting some basic stats would be a good idea but you've already gotten a bunch of good suggestions there.

It's a pretty common college requirement, but at some colleges you CAN satisfy it with oddball things -- one of my friends did history of rock n roll for it. Alas, my school made me choose between art appreciation, music appreciation, theatre appreciation, or dance appreciation. Nothing else counted. Other than art/music history for majors I guess.

If you call your kid 8th grade now and change your mind later, as long as you have kept records, it should not be difficult to re-designate what he's done as 9th grade, what he did in 9th grade as 10th grade, etcetera. Regardless of your decision, I would keep records now just to keep doors open for both of you for the future.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frances-chan/yale-eating-disorders_b_4921382.html Reading the links in the article reveals some really disturbing intrusions into the lives of students.

I remember reading a study (I forgot where) that claimed that kids who were more likely to become nearsighted also were more likely to be able to control their vision enough for early reading -- iow, it's a correlation rather than a causation. Might or might not be true, again, I forgot where.

The pace is FAST in a college course and as previously stated, the grade will follow her for the rest of her life. I would strongly consider putting it off for a year and getting her feet wet with something fun/free like Duolingo.