Derek Owens offers the videos and student worksheets for the first two chapters of physical science for free as a preview, if you/your DD want to sample it to see if it might be a good fit. The course is available for purchase through Lucid Education and you can use it independently, as opposed to enrolling in the online course with Mr. Owens grading the work. Here's a link: http://www.lucideducation.com/?p=PhysicalSciencePre.php

Sample pages on CBD's website: http://www.christianbook.com/the-human-odyssey-volume-2/9781931728560/pd/172856?product_redirect=1&Ntt=172856&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCP It is a textbook but reads more like a narrative. The pages have a clean layout with plenty of white space, not a ton of distracting sidebars, etc. Don't let the list price scare you . . . you should be able to find it easily on the used market online for much less.

Yes, definitely! All the videos are online at http://www.lucideducation.com/?p=PrealgebraPre.php. So if you buy prealgebra as a "product" and grade everything yourself, rather than enrolling in the course with Mr. Owens doing the grading, you will save a lot.

Wait, are you able to buy just the files of the student workbooks now, rather than the hard copies? Are you buying the course as a "product" to use independently or enrolling in the online class? When I purchased Derek Owens pre-algebra from http://www.lucideducation.com/?p=PrealgebraBuy.php, the parent files, which contained all homework assignments, tests, review materials, exams, and full solutions, came on a flash drive. The student workbook was not on the parent files flash drive. The student workbook contains the partially filled-in lecture notes and practice problems only (not "homework" problems). I had to buy the student workbook in hard copy; there was no e-version of the student workbook. Maybe they've changed that since then, though.

I got it pre-printed. It came nicely spiral bound (smooth plastic coil, not comb), in two volumes, with glossy paperback covers and on nice paper.

:iagree: Human Odyssey volume 2 (out of a total of 3 volumes) covers 1400 to 1914. Volume 3 is 1914 to ~current.

Before Foerster Algebra I, DS did all of the old Math Mammoth 6A and parts of Math Mammoth 6B (Math Mammoth has since been revised to include a new "pre-algebra" level 7, which contains topics that used to be in level 6), and then he used parts of Derek Owens pre-algebra to reinforce/review and gain practice working with a video lecture/notetaking format. I wasn't in a hurry for him to start Foerster Alg I (because I don't want to get to geometry before 9th grade), so we took plenty of time to do a review of middle school math through word problems and then pre-algebra. Like a PP, the first 4 chapters of Foerster Alg I were also pre-algebra review, with extra application through some really good word problems. It's worked out well so far and I'm glad we took the path that we did.

:iagree: And my son enjoyed Elemental Science's logic stage biology and earth science.

:iagree: :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

Nice find! Thank you for sharing it.

Thanks for sharing this!

This is beautiful. :001_wub: :grouphug: Thank you for starting this thread and thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts.

We're enjoying The Ultimate Guide to the Presidents right now. It was made by The History Channel. Nice overview of American history through the lens of the events that took place during each President's time in office.

Bumping an old thread to ask for feedback . . . Chiguirre, how did the Physical Science class go? I understand Elemental Science just started offering these high school classes this year (2014-15). Has anyone else tried them and care to provide a review? Thanks!

Agreeing with all previous posters - I let my DS write in the textbook too. :) The lessons would take way too long otherwise and not be any more effective, IMO. And the newsprint-style paper is too flimsy to really expect it to be nonconsumable.

Another Foerster user here. My DS started Foerster's Algebra I halfway through this year, 7th grade. He's using it alongside the Math Without Borders videos. He pre-reads each lesson in the text and then likes to see and hear the examples worked by the MWB instructor. It's also good note-taking practice. DS says he really, really likes this program and wants to use it for Algebra II as well. He's a strong and willing student overall, slightly accelerated in math, and really appreciates Foerster's clear and concise (not wordy) instruction. He gets a kick out of the humorous names and phrases used in the Foerster word problems. A bit of comic relief in the midst of math rigor. :001_smile: He used Math Mammoth through 6A, skipped through MM6B, did a pre-algebra review/reinforcement with most of Derek Owens' pre-algebra, then started Foerster Alg I.

Cool! Thank you, Murrayshire!

Fastforward, would you be comfortable sharing what WTM Academy advised when you asked them about placement?

Stephen Hake is listed as co-author on John Saxon's math series. Stephen Hake also founded Hake Grammar. I've never used Saxon Math, but apparently Hake Grammar uses the same continual spiral review format as Saxon Math. It works well for my DS. He does all the questions in the new material section of each lesson, followed by every other question in the review set. HTH.

K12's Human Odyssey volume 3 covers WWI to current. My DS is using it independently. He outlines his readings WTMish-style. We add some lit and documentaries. We don't do crafts here either. :D Here's a link where you can view the table of contents and an excerpt. Don't let the list price scare you . . . it can be found much less expensively on the used market. http://www.christianbook.com/odyssey-volume-3-modern-world-studies/9781601530189/pd/530188?event=ESRCN You can search or ask here on the forums for accompanying lit if you want to add more to it.

We find Hake Grammar to be independent, thorough, and effective. Also I've heard the same about Analytical Grammar, but you'd have to research whether your DD would be best placed into Junior Analytical Grammar or the regular Analytical Grammar. Easy Grammar is also independent. We tried it when my DS was in 4th grade, and he liked using it, but I found it lacked enough repetition over time to for him to retain much of it. Once we tried Hake, with the spiral review built in, rather than being in a separate book (Daily Grams), we never looked back at Easy Grammar again. It seems to work well for others though.

We enjoyed CPO Earth Science. Here's a link to their website with some free resources: http://www.cpo.com/home/ForEducators/PhysicalEarthandSpaceScience/tabid/308/Default.aspx. I bought a used copy of the student text and TM (helpful for the labs especially), and we did quite a few of the Skill and Practice sheets from their website. If you search here on the forum, someone linked to free PDF versions of the student text. We did the CPO labs that were feasible for us at home (there were several/many, as I recall) and also added in TOPS unit Rocks and Minerals, along with the TOPS supply kit (definitely recommended). http://topscience.org/books/rocks23.html

The material covered is more complex than just capitalization and end marks. The first book does include capitalization and end marks, plus parts of speech are labeled, quotation marks are added, commas are inserted, and prepositional phrases are also labeled. In the second book, concepts from the first book are reviewed and then applied with more complexity (and some of them get pretty tricky). Commas, end marks, apostrophes, and quotation marks must be added or removed, and main clauses, dependent adverb clauses, and other dependent clauses are identified and labeled. There is also good vocabulary coverage starting in the first book and continuing throughout, as well as choosing the correct word from among a group of homophones based on the context of the sentence. It might not seem deep or complex to you, perhaps because the daily lessons are brief. But I wanted to point out to others who may read this that Fix-It does actually teach and continually build upon many concepts from the very beginning. :001_smile: That said, even though IEW doesn't assign age ranges to the different levels , I'd guess the first two books are really targeted toward middle/upper elementary, rather than middle school or high school. IEW does, of course, recommend starting at the beginning, even for older students - they're trying to sell the product, after all. Each level reviews and builds on concepts from the previous level. It isn't terribly detailed, but there's a graphic in the latest IEW "magalog" on page 41 that shows the scope and sequence of what is covered, here: http://bluetoad.com/publication/?i=244900#{"issue_id":244900,"page":41} (I looked briefly for this graphic on their website outside of the magalog but didn't see it. Maybe someone else will find and link it.) You can also download a placement test from this page. http://iew.com/fix If you take the time to go through it, it gives a good idea of what a student should be able to do by the end of each level. Yes, exactly. Students using Fix-It identify and label parts of speech in each sentence presented, but IEW does not teach diagramming.

Thank you for explaining this! :)

Dolphin, your positive comments are leading me to look at this program too. I noticed on the OM website, for Intro to Lit and Comp, there's a note that "There is no teacher manual available for this course at this time." (http://oakmeadow.com/courses/intro-to-lit/) Could you please talk about how that works if there's no TM? Meaning, in what way is it "open and go" without a TM? Or am I interpreting that incorrectly? I think my DS would really enjoy the Hero's Journey aspect of this course.