Absolutely; I think I already recommended this without the timeline. I think putting a timeline on algebra 1 such that "we must finish this in one semester" would be unwise, but I do think that going through algebra 1 as fast as the student can comprehend and then starting geometry immediately afterwards would be wise in this situation.

That'll work. Whether geometry can be doubled with algebra 1 *completely* depends on the geometry program. Some include very little algebra, but most modern geometry programs (BJU will probably tell you if theirs does) include enough algebra to make it problematic.

Foerster is a very solid, non-discovery text with a good emphasis on word problems, as well as both the conceptual and computational aspects of algebra.

I do like the idea of incentives for careful copying of work. I would set the incentive at something smaller than his current rate of careless errors, but not unachievable. For example, if he currently misses half of the problems due to careless errors, set the rate at 2/3 or 3/4 without careless errors.

My mother has the same thing -- she was christened a common nickname, with an unusual (but traditional within the family) spelling, and all through her childhood teachers would INSIST on her 'full name' until she brought in a note from her mother.

Most geometry programs expect that the student knows algebra 1 -- I'm not very familiar with BJU, but looking at their course description it says '"Analytic Geometry" helps students to make the algebra-geometry connection in each chapter.' -- that looks like they're expecting the student to already know algebra. So I wouldn't start the geometry course until algebra 1 is finished. If he's able to finish algebra 1 early with good understanding I would surely go ahead and start geometry, but I would run them consecutively, rather than concurrently. Whether he's able to get them both done in one year (even including summer) is going to very much depend on his aptitude, prior knowledge, and work habits.

Exactly what regentrude said. That being said, I suspect that Saxon is superior to many of the programs used in public schools, which grant neither a conceptual nor a computational understanding. Saxon (if worked consistently) is excellent at giving a computational understanding. Some students are able to generalize from this to the conceptual understanding; some are not. Some students need information presented in bigger chunks rather than in small pieces like Saxon. Many people have had students who did well with Saxon, but when they were asked to apply the skills they have learned to real-world problems were unable to do so. Others have experienced exactly the opposite. This is very much a YMMV moment. However, for me, it is so boring that I would rather gouge my eyeballs out than teach or learn from it. It kills the joy I find in mathematics. There are other textbooks that I would much rather use, both for average and for gifted learners. I like AOPS. I like Foerster. I like Dolciani. I like Jacobs. I don't like Saxon.

Just to help w/planning: DIVE's chemistry recommends at least concurrent enrollment in algebra 2, and physics recommends at least concurrent enrollment in precalculus. So you'll need to be starting algebra 2 at a minimum by the beginning of 10th grade, and precalculus (which means you'll need geometry done) by the beginning of 11th grade. BJU's sequence is alg 1/geo/alg 2, so what you're probably looking at is doing alg 2/geo in 10th grade. I'd start geometry as soon as algebra 1 is done and work through the summer to reduce the school-year load for 10th grade -- two math classes at once can be difficult!

The only issue would be imo if there were an inappropriate emphasis on fact-drilling rather than just fun problems like 'if there are six children, and each has two cookies, how many cookies are there?'

Switching to keys, doing that as a second pre-algebra, and then switching back sounds reasonable. Also, even next year -- if she's going through and missing a LOT of problems, it means you need to slow down, work some more, etc. -- she shouldn't be moving to the next week without getting the week she's on.

What's he doing for math? Because honestly his math is at least as important as his science. I'd lean more towards the physical sciences instead of the second year of biology, unless he's thinking of biomedical engineering. I see your last post was a year ago and indicates heading for pre-algebra, which I'm guessing he's doing algebra 1 in 9th, correct? If not, disregard the next paragraph. If so, I'd go ahead and do biology. I'd also work year-round on math if need be as most freshmen engineers will at least have seen calculus 1 before, and his coursework will be far more difficult if he's one of the few who hasn't at least seen the concepts before. He also needs to make sure he gets in a serious course on chemistry and another on physics before he graduates. I'd also look into a course on programming, not to replace a science/math class but as an elective -- again, many engineering programs include a lot of programming, and someone who's genuinely starting from scratch will have to run to catch up.

The reason people are asking other questions is because, if there are other issues causing the lack of knowledge and retention in math, changing to a different curriculum and hoping retention will increase may do nothing other than waste your time and money. Since you said he just hates math in general, pick the curriculum YOU like and stick with it. I would go with MUS because I think the video instruction will be the help you said math mammoth is lacking. Whatever curriculum you choose, I would definitely have him do the placement tests. If, as you said, he doesn't really 'get' multiplication (with whole numbers) there is no real point working on multiplication (with fractions).

Yes, but if they ran into trouble I'd be willing to move sideways for a while/camp out for a while if necessary.

Ok. The reason you are looking for the 6th term of the sequence is because the first term (3000) is after 0 trips. I would write the sequence as a table with the first row being 'trips' (so the first row would be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and the second row being 'ff miles'. This will help her see why she needs the 6th term. And as creekland says, noone would ever solve the problem with the formula given in the answer key, unless specifically told to use this formula.

Huh, I don't understand why you'd start at 6. After five round trips, she'll have 6500(1300 per trip) and 3000 bonus for 9500. (After googling, this appears to be part of a worksheet on arithmetic sequences. You may also be supposed to write it out as a sequence, so 3000 (initial), 4300(after 1 trip), ..., 9500 (after 5 trips).)

Well, it's not a course, but he might enjoy this book -- http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Star-Trek-Robert-Jenkins/dp/0060929243/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1/185-9342215-0917928 (note, one of the questions it asks is whether captain kirk could really have gotten anywhere with the alien females)

I believe he only recommended skipping the trig sections.

Ah -- in that case, yeah, I'd go with Latin. :)

Ayup. I wouldn't worry that much about it being only fractions, as a comprehensive course on fractions should be reviewing just about everything (except possibly long division) from previous years within the course. You can't really do fractions without reviewing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and at least short division.

When you say mastery-oriented, what do you mean? What have you tried? Generally mastery-based will have fewer topics per book (MUS is a bit of an extreme) and expect more retention. Also, since you said you tried fractions a few years ago, what ages are you looking for now? That will make a difference in the responses.

How mastery-based are you looking for? Have you considered math-u-see?

It's amusing, because I am (as in, right now) working on a translation into English of a book written in German a while ago, that was a requirement for my STEM phd. The languages I could have chosen to translate from were all European, so I chose the one I had some background in. I will add, though, that with the increasing levels of English proficiency around the globe, such requirements are in general being phased out. Frankly I would do a language your daughter is interested in, if possible, rather than choosing based on potential career goals.

Yup. Actually I get this all the time, because I hate chocolate. "Oh, you can't hate CHOCOLATE. Just try my chocolate pie/cake/whatever!" No, I really and truly don't like chocolate. I can't stand even the faintest hint of it, and I refuse to make chocolate food for anyone else because I find even the smell disgusting.

A newspaper we used to read (st paul pioneer press) had a 'bulletin board' which referred to it as 'expelling a posterior breeze'. We've never stopped calling them posterior breezes.

Yes, Keys to Algebra goes pretty well with pre-algebra.