Some goods (especially cakes) just won't work if you cut the sugar TOO low. What'll happen is that it won't rise, and you'll get a very flat and dense (but still yummy imo) cake. Amusingly -- my grandmother told my mother that you could cut the sugar in just about any cake recipe by a third (now you can halve it, back then it was a third :D) -- so my mother did. Except she found she couldn't cut the sugar in my grandma's recipes, because they were already at the absolute minimum amount of sugar needed to actually work. We had pound cake every day for a week while she figured that out :P

10 calories/day is *roughly* 1lb/year. It adds up, it really does. Add in burning a little extra due to more walking, even if it's only 100/day, and you explain it. What else does this mean for us? Well, that for ourselves, if we could *consistently* cut out one small thing, our weight would start to shrink. For example, cutting out a single can of soda per day should lead you to drop 15-20 lbs/year if you left everything else unchanged.

If you're doing physical science, I'd seriously look into at least supplementing with Hakim's books. (given that he likes history of science)

This is how I had had the second person plural in any language explained to me :D

Talk to her advisor AND the department that cancelled the class she needs. It is entirely possible that since the class was cancelled out from under her they may add her to a full class (unless it's a lab class, those have a hard cap for a reason.) ETA: I meant that SHE should talk to them, sorry.

The first one is unambiguously 7. Although a strict reading of order of operations gives 288 for the second one (in other words, that's not WRONG), I believe the question to be ambiguous. The question is, does multiplication indicated by juxtaposition (i.e. 2x) take precedence over division indicated by fraction bars? For example, is 1/2x equal to 1/(2x) or (1/2)x? There is not a firm consensus here.

It's really difficult to do without actually tracking how much you're eating. You mentioned fitnesspal, how much do your days usually come out to, calorie-wise? I mean, if you're having meals + bowl of ice cream + snacks, I'd suspect the biggest problem is that your calorie intake exceeds your expenditures.

The college algebra course + the trigonometry course = the precalculus course.

Chalkdust's sounds good, especially since there's some review of algebra near the beginning which may be especially necessary when changing programs. It's frequently spread over 3 semesters as there's a LOT of stuff in the book. It also uses a college-style book which will be a nice transition.

Skinny fat is usually more used for people who are in the normal range for BMI but still carrying excess fat, not people who are underweight.

BMI is like 28-29, body fat % is about 26-27

If she's enjoying them, the teachers think she's a good fit, you can afford them, and she's learning, I'd definitely continue.

I would actually contact the community college and ask them for their advice. Even if they don't think the classes would be a good fit, they might very well know someone who would be seriously interested in mentoring a young, highly interested person. I know if someone asked me to work with a mathematically inclined child who was genuinely interested in learning all that they could about math I'd do it for gas money, and the only reason I'd ask for the gas money is because I'm broke :D

You could always try it and see how he responds. Some people do better doing every subject every day and other people would do better doing every subject once a week or racing through logic in a month. The caveat I'd advise is that if a skill-based subject (math, writing, foreign language) is 'done' early in the year, regular practice should be scheduled through the rest of the year to increase retention for next year. This does not have to be super-hard, just (for example) cumulative review problems once every week or two, something like that.

Y'know, that kind of thing is really difficult to sum up. If you ask about any specific skill, I can either tell you what we use that skill for or that we don't really use it outside of technical fields but it's in the algebra course to provide an introduction for further study. But the whole course is a bit more difficult. I've looked at this book before and thought it would be really helpful for answering those types of questions. Maybe it would be a worthwhile supplement for you, as the mom? Disclaimer: I don't have this book yet. But it's not that expensive and I've heard really good things about it, and the preview was excellent. I'm going to buy it during my first year of teaching fulltime (hopefully coming up next year!) http://www.amazon.com/Real-World-Algebra-Edward-Zaccaro/dp/0967991528

Just for clarification -- most places that refer to calc A/B/C are on the quarter system, in which case it takes 3 quarters of calculus to get to calc 1/2 on the semester system. This is why calc AB gets you credit for calc 1 -- because it covers two quarters of material. Calc BC covers the full year.

Honestly, having no direction is a reason *to* study it. Not having had it will make a lot of potential college paths a lot longer. If he ends up wanting to study any science (including biology and geology), mathematics, engineering, computing, business, medicine, veterinary science, physical therapy, or probably others I've forgotten, he'll need to take math classes in college. If he needs to start in algebra 1, this'll put him taking 4 semesters of math before he gets to calculus, which can add time/stress to a degree and reduce electives. Even if he's going to study history, art, english, or something else, he'll probably need to take a general education class which often has algebra as a prerequisite. At my university, students who place below college algebra (i.e. into algebra 1 or 2) need to take remedial classes before they can take the general education class. Although there are universities where courses in logic or something similar can be substituted, they are few and far between. The only way I'd skip algebra would be if I had a student whom I was absolutely sure was not college bound.

At most universities, yes. You would be better off to ask whomever issues the diploma though.

You know, I 100% agree with you here. But I also think that, firstly, elementary school is an awfully young age to be making that decision, and secondly, her educational aspirations seemed to include possible law, medical, or veterinary school. The bachelor's degrees offered by the first school online are in information technology, liberal arts, and psychology. The second one offers a bit more of an array of courses, but still not really anything that would possibly lead into medical or veterinary school. All of these are awfully competitive. A student who has to take extra postgraduate courses in order to even be considered for admission will be at a significant disadvantage financially, as financial aid for a second bachelor's is generally much harder to come by.

Regrettably, some people will see anything other than admiration and applause as attacks. And a lot of people really, really don't want to listen to people telling them that what they want to do almost certainly isn't going to work. I really believe discussions are made far more valuable by people respectfully presenting alternate points of view, and I really didn't see a lot of disrespect here.

Is she taking these at a university? Computer science will frequently require calculus, but also discrete mathematics. It is rather difficult to get a university to accept a home-study course in discrete mathematics, but dual enrolling for it would probably be a decent idea. I would also look at universities she might plan to attend and see what they require. If she has one or two firmly in mind, contacting them directly and asking would probably be fruitful.

The university I am at now has a 'transition' course for students who took non-calc-based physics. It's a one-semester course that basically catches you up on the calc and how it applies to the physics courses. Maybe they have something similar? Otherwise it would probably count as a general elective. He needs to ask, though.

About half of precalculus. Trigonometry is the other half. There's some overlap.

BUT, while this is true -- be sure you're attending a sufficiently good state university that the classes will be taught at a high enough level for you to learn what you need to. My undergrad really didn't prepare me well for graduate school in mathematics. Courses which are standard at most decent schools weren't even offered, although I did some as independent study, and the courses which were offered got through so much less material that it was a tremendous leap up to attend even a mediocre graduate school. Sometimes I wonder how my life would have been different if I hadn't settled for the school close to home.

Honestly, the first time I saw it (a long time ago by now) I thought it meant Dear Heart :P