I see no issue in allowing a child to use a calculator for fun outside of math class or for a specific set of math work. The issue (jmo) is when it's used for most/all work within the class. Some of my college students cannot reliably do calculations such as 29 - 20 or 2(1/2) or .354*10 without a calculator. This is a huge time-handicap on tests.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/07/3903585/british-woman-79-becomes-martial.html

Yes. I do know someone who's a registered sex offender because his ex-wife was dropping off his daughter and they walked in early (w/o knocking) and caught him in a compromising position. He has some sort of lewd conduct in front of a minor conviction.

What I tend to do for tests is have part A and part B. Part A is what I think you should have down pat in order to move on. The questions are shorter and tend to test one- or two-step problems. On part A, I expect perfect or near-perfect work and give little partial credit. Part B, on the other hand, tests at a much deeper level. The problems have more steps and the solution steps are not necessarily intuitively obvious. Although a C may be obtained by only doing well on the first part, correct work on the second part is necessary to get higher than a C.

In my personal opinion, the purpose of marking a test is to determine what proportion of the course subject a student knows. A student who knows more should receive a higher grade than a student who knows less. Assigning the same problem grade to a student who works nearly everything correctly but makes a computational error as to a student who simply writes 'idk' and moves on makes my test not very useful. With careless errors, I usually take off one point for the first couple and two after that. This has the effect that a student who frequently makes careless errors but does understand the concepts cannot make more than a C. I may take off more than that if the problem is clearly wrong in a "you should have known that before taking the course manner" -- i.e. probability greater than 100%, negative length in a word problem, etc. Now, in a homeschool environment, you can stop on a topic and say 'we'll move on when you can do this perfectly.' In a school environment (which is what the OP was posting about), that's not a realistic idea, and frankly, neither is failing students who know about 80% of the course material.

Would depend on the charges, but with those charges, no.

Quark, thank you so much for the kind words; they're much appreciated. I'm feeling terrified as I send out applications for employment (I'm finally getting my degree!)

Undefined just means that we can't assign a real number as 'the answer'. 0/0 is undefined. We usually use indeterminate form to indicate something where it's not just undefined, but we don't really have a clue about the behaviour based on that form. For example, if we are taking the limit of a rational function, and we get '7/0', we can say the function diverges to infinity. We can't say anything like that with respect to 0/0. You would actually have seen this during the limits section of calculus and when you did derivatives as limits of difference quotients. Every time you find the derivative as lim_{h->0} (f(x+h)-f(x))/h, if you evaluated at the first step you would get 0/0. But when you simplify, cancel some h's, and *then* take the limit, you're getting an expression for the slope of the tangent line.

Tell her to count her blessings :) Middle school-age was where I decided I hated other females, and it took me years to get over it. Of course, I didn't even TRY to fit in, so that didn't help.

Additionally, keep a record (so you'll remember later) of how long it took her to do it. This will be a useful guide for yourself on whether your test was too long (most common among novice test-makers) , too short, or just right.

0/0 is indeterminate. Division is the inverse operation of multiplication. When we say n/d = q, what we are really saying is that dq = n. (n for numerator, d for denominator, q for quotient.) If n is not zero, then to evaluate n/0, we need to solve q*0 = n. But since q*0 is 0, this means solving n = 0. But since we already said n wasn't 0, there isn't any (real) number we can define as the value for n/0. (On the Riemann sphere, we can define it as infinity, but infinity is not a real number.) We do know, however, that if x is a variable and n is not 0, that n/x gets quite large (either positive or negative) as x gets very close to 0. Now, if both n and d are 0, then we have q*0 = 0. This is true for any value of q. This means that we can't really say anything about what happens at n/d. Here's some algebra to illustrate how weird this can be. a) Look at 7x/x. If x = 0, this is 0/0. But if we cancel the x's, we get 7. b) Look at -5x/x. If x = 0, this is 0/0. But if we cancel the x's, we get -5. c) Look at x^2/x (x squared over x). If x=0, this is 0/0. But if we cancel an x, we get x/1 = x, and THEN if x = 0, that's 0. Look at x/(x^3). If x = 0, this is 0/0. But if we cancel an x, we get 1/(x^2), and THEN if x=0, we get 1/0. In calculus, you learn this as the concept of limit, and you learn that the limit as x goes to 0 of a) is 7, of b) is -5, of c) is 0, and of d) is (depending on your textbook's notation) either infinity or undefined. I hope I haven't perpetrated any errors in this post; if something seems odd, do ask, sometimes I typo :P

Some colleges ban the 89 on examinations because of its symbolic manipulation capabilities. Some just ban all graphing calculators. Some allow and encourage them. The 84 is likely to do just about everything you need it to and be a lot less expensive, (especially if you look used on ebay).

For grammar I would strongly consider something which is meant to be a one- or two-year course, like Jensen's grammar and punctuation books or Analytical Grammar. I wouldn't use a graded resource. Those books also have the advantage that they're designed primarily as grammar books, so it'd be easier for you to continue your chosen writing program. The pre-sciences might be an altogether reasonable choice for her. However, if she starts to struggle, I would drop down to enjoyable books at her reading level for science and history; it is far more important, for her eventual success at the community college, that she catch up in mathematics and english. Since you mentioned landry academy I presume Christian-based science is your desire, so you might consider having her read some of John Hudson Tiner's books. Here's a link to the rainbowresource page: http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?subject=11&category=8429 I have not used them myself, but I have heard good reviews from others who have used them - they would be a good and inexpensive way to get her some exposure to science (and history) topics while not overwhelming her with academics. At the risk of repeating myself, for science and history I would really try just for exposure at her stage of education.

Goats are very self-sufficient about midwifery. Do research local vets, though, so if anything DOES go wrong you can get someone who knows something about goats. We took my brother's goat to the vet for an emergency c-section (a really lovely lamancha) and they gave her the wrong dose of anesthetic and killed them both :( This should be preventable if you find someone who knows about goats. (p.s. we had about 50 goats for about 10 years and in that time had two c-sections, it's not that common) The goat will kill any trees or shrubs in your fenced area, as they are browsers and will chew the bark off them. Be sure you fence around the base of any trees to keep little goat necks from sticking out and chewing them. They are also very fond of tobacco -- I remember seeing one pluck a lit cigarette out of my mother's mouth and eat it. Make sure she gets enough food, but don't overdo it on grain. If her stools become loose, she is definitely getting too much. Pygmy goats easily tend towards fatness. Also, under NO circumstances should you train a goat to 'butt' because it's funny. It's like training a dog to nip because it's cute when he's a puppy. When she has her babies, if they are not polled(naturally hornless) you may consider having them disbudded. Your friend might have equipment to do this. I say this because this is your first goat, and you might not be keeping it forever -- it is far, far more difficult to rehome a horned goat. I love goats. They are so smart and so funny. Congratulations :)

Instead of doing another program, I would use one of the free worksheet generators online and have it generate an answer sheet as well, when a topic comes up where more practice is needed.

Yes. I have many students who are struggling. I write on their papers 'Come and see me in office hours so we can get you back on track.' They don't come. They just keep turning in undone homework and failing the quizzes. Meanwhile, I sit in my office hours and grade ... (or do crosswords).

Given the info in all your posts: I would speculate that he's been very good at guessing at what the Saxon book is asking, and matching the pattern to that he has learned, but has not really understood *why* he is doing what he is doing. I think that is why he is struggling to keep all of the formulas straight in his head, because he has not understood why the formulas are the way they are. I would suggest that he is possibly one of the students Jann mentioned, for whom Saxon just doesn't work so well. I would second Kareni's suggestion. I would get a reasonably priced Algebra II text (Lial's intermediate is usually found cheaply on amazon, for older editions) and have him work through in a diagnostic-prescriptive manner. In other words, I would have him take the chapter test and go back and re-study anything he missed. I would not have him continue in the day school, as it does not seem to be working out for him. Frankly I think continuing and hoping it will all work out will just convince him that he's stupid at math, and I would hate to see this happen.

Or, not knowing how well they work/not knowing how to make them work/etc. Frankly, the abstinence-only programs which spend so much time discussing how condoms can fail and implying that they're worthless at preventing pregnancy have done more harm than good.

I do agree here. I wouldn't rush faster than he can. But I think there's a difference between 'rushing' and just not taking summers off. I wouldn't take summers off from math.

Honestly, you both sound defeated :/ I would take some time off science for breathing room, and then start something with a lot less math. In the meantime, I would keep working on math skills. I would also consider (as you mentioned this has been a problem for a while) working on something like this: http://beginningspublishing.com/oscommerce/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=38 right before he starts his next math-intensive science (whether it's chemistry or physics). I would not consider doing another physical science until he has completed algebra 1 for sure.

For a really fascinating (but also somewhat disturbing) look at the brains of severely neglected/traumatized children, check out The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog.

Well, you can't really do those on a non-graphing calculator. Frankly, if he understands the concepts I would have him do a few by hand (but not all of them because these can be horrendously long problems) and then learn how to do them with a graphing calculator in precalc, as this topic is re-covered in chapter 11 of foerster's precalc, and will be covered in just about any precalc course you do. Foerster's precalc integrates the graphing calculator a lot more, and it doesn't make sense to learn how to do them with an obsolete program and then learn how to do them next year on the graphing calculator. You could also just buy the graphing calculator you'll need for next year now, and have him do them on the calculator.

Well, for Foerster there's Math Without Borders -- I've heard good things but not used it personally.

Ooh. Another thing that would be really nifty to have in a program (where we may not have native speaker access) would be a set of carefully graded readers with an audiobook that read along.

A way to easily print labels for all common household objects would be really, really nice. Honestly this would be nice if it were on a website where you could click your way down a list and have it auto-generate labels and/or flashcards for you to print.