If you don't need one in color, these are $88. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Texas-Instruments-TI-84-Plus-Graphing-Calculator-10-Digit-LCD/3136045

Try Krazy Dad puzzles. Most of them are printable - things like Sodoku of various types. There are many types of logic and spatial reasoning puzzles. He has made them computer generated, so if you find a style that you like, there are unlimited versions, and a range of difficulty. https://krazydad.com/ Edited to add: My current favorite is Slitherlinks. But even the easiest versions are not-so-easy. You might try looking at the answer key and adding some more hints until you understand the strategies for playing this puzzle.

These puzzles have the same idea. Maybe they will work. You can print out an infinite number of unique puzzles, since they are computer generated. https://www.worksheetworks.com/puzzles/addition-squares.html

I think that Jann (is it in Texas?) uses these texts for her online courses. Maybe tag her and she can give you her opinion?

I have a equally old Dolciani Geometry book. I found it helpful. I would be very happy to find a copy of a free college geometry textbook from that decade. KEEP IT!

$80 at the hardware store is less than when we had to do it at the dealer. (My husband's super-power is losing car keys at home!) It was closer to $200 last time we did it at the Volvo dealer and the Toyota dealer. I wish that I had known that there were other options. And once we had to get the "valet" key since even the dealer did not have any with the remote of the correct type. It was much more than $5, but I really wanted to be able to leave the house, so we got it anyway.

You have this on the wrong section. If you move it to the general high school portion, you will probably get more replies!

I think that this one, the first one listed on the NRCE book list .... A Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome (TMRC-B0461) by Adkins and Adkins (ISBN 0195123328) … might be the most accessible. It is interesting to read, not too academic.

Writing with Skill Level One does a research paper in weeks 35 & 36. At that point, they have practiced all the skills with topics assigned from the text. In these last two weeks of the year, they finally get to choose their own topic to use. Other levels have more and longer research papers, using more of the "topoi" learned during the course.

If you do not have time to help her everyday, you might need to prioritize. (*) Middle school kids are not famous for their time-management skills. Perhaps you can do a few live classes, and then a few more self-paced (or mom-lead classes). In that way, if things begin to fall apart, you keep on with the outsourced courses, and then let a few things slide. You will have vacations (and next summer) to finish up. In my experience, the first few online (or otherwise outsourced) classes took a lot of time from me. It was sometimes harder for me to help, since I did not have all the material at my disposal, and I did not have the benefit of watching the class. In my home-school, English and Math are priorities. Everything else is easier if your English and math skills are tip-top! (*) Even if you do have time to help everyday, you probably still need to prioritize! I know nothing in particular about Vertias.

This is just my opinion from memory, since I did not like the book enough to keep it and use it again. The multiple choice questions were about minor details in the textbook. To me, some of them seemed intentionally misleading. Sometimes the wording was just awkward. For instance, I searched for the Notgrass sample pages and here is a question from the student review book …. Early representatives and senators who favored a strong central government took what name? It would be much more clear to ask … What was the name of the group of early representatives and senators who favored a strong central government? I cannot find a sample of the quiz questions, but here is what I remember. Many of the questions would give a stem, like this …. The early representative and senators who favored a strong central government were called - A. federalists and some other choices But giving a stem that is a incomplete sentence is harder for kids to answer. If there is a question, such as "What was the name of the group of early representatives and senators who favored a strong central government?", then your brain wants to answer that question. If you are given an incomplete sentence, your brain is confused. (Actually, educators and brain scientists know a lot about how to test people to accurately assess what they know.) I think that Notgrass would be a much better curriculum if it had better assignments. I still use Notgrass middle school books, so I am not against Notgrass, I just think that the high school texts leave much to be desired. I hope that helps!

My older son was taking the Notgrass Government in Fall of 2016. The class officially used the first edition. Although the teacher, and most students (at least those who got their books over the summer) had the older edition. The consensus seemed to be that the texts were easily enough exchanged. There were sometimes questions in the new quizzes on details that were not in the older versions. However, the Notgrass quiz questions are a bit fussy, but that is not the question that you asked! In any case, although Notgrass indicated that they were not compatible, but most people thought that they were.

The SAT was redesigned in 2016 to include significantly more higher math - like trigonometry. There is less geometry, and more statistics. I could not find any discussion of the changes on the College Board site, maybe it is old news now. But you can read this article on PrepScholar (the same site linked above) and search for more on their blog if you need more details. https://blog.prepscholar.com/new-sat-vs-old-sat-quick-summary

I lived in Wheaton (before kids). There is so much to do, it is so easy to get to all the fun - and cheap - stuff! The libraries in Montgomery County are fabulous. I know that you will love it.

I agree with you. There should be a glossary included with every single report. It should contain an explanation of all medical terms, some diagrams - whatever you need to understand it yourself.

In my opinion, a husband who will cook for you is so much better than an air fryer!

An air fryer is really a convection over. You do not "fry" food in oil, like in a deep fat fryer, or even on the stovetop. It works well with pieces of meat - like a steak or a pork chop. You can spray it with a little oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt. You can only use a minimal amount of dry breading, because it will fly off, since the heat is transferred by the fan inside the "fryer". I also make "fried" chicken using a wet breading (flour, egg, flour again). That works for bone-in or boneless chicken, so I am sure it would work for chicken nuggets. You can use a sprayer and spray a mist of oil onto the food. I have not tried fish, because I am worried about the smell, so I usually bake fish. But I am sure that you can find good recipes for that too. Anyway, my point is that there is really no excess grease. You use the minimal amount of fat needed to crisp the food and add some flavor. That is the appeal of the appliance!

Did you think about using one that is intended for schools? Canvas and Thinkwave are two that I am familiar with. But I have used them "for free" as a teacher, so I do not know how the institutional accounts work or how much that might cost compared to Homeschool Life.

I have no experience with the TPS classes. But I do own a Wacom tablet. It did not meet my needs at all. The stylus tip is thick, which requires that you write using very large letters. In addition, it is different writing on a slick screen than on paper. It must be better than "writing" with a mouse, I suppose.

I might give an incomplete response, since I am in the middle of dinner. But I will post what I can and then come back later. I do have the AOPS Pre-Algebra book, but we are getting new floors this week and it is buried somewhere. So I am not looking in the book now, just giving you some impressions.... The area of a triangle problem … This just requires you to plug in the side lengths into the formula. I think that they derive and explain the formula for using the side lengths to find the area. But I can't remember if that is in PreAlgebra or Geometry. If he is having a hard time understanding the Pythagorean Theorem, that would explain why it might not have stuck with him. The side length of a regular polygon …. Does he understand the theorems about interior and exterior angles of a polygon? if it was a polygon with less sides, I might ask him to draw 168 degree angles until it meets up again. But that would not work with this problem - the angles are too huge! So, did he really understand those theorems? Maybe you can find a video so that he can see someone manipulating the shapes to explain the formula for interior and exterior angles. The revolving restaurant … I would make a model. Draw two equal circles. Let one be the unmoving foundation of the restaurant. Take the other the circle and cut it out. Draw the table on both (the base will retain the original location.) Place the cut out circle on top of the foundation and rotate it. Maybe that will help him to see the rotation and get that the starting point is the original location of the table. Count to 21 and see where it is located, then keep counting to 56 to get back to where the table started. (Clearly, you would not be rotating as consistently as the mechanisms of the restaurant, but he should get the idea.) You might find a video of the view from a rotating restaurant. Maybe he doesn't even understand the idea of the rotating restaurant? Sometimes nonroutine problems are all more the context than the math. But in general, I think lots of kids need more life experience to be good at spatial reasoning. As a math teacher, I notice that most kids are have a clear preference for algebraic manipulation or spatial reasoning. That is why Geometry can be easier for some students, they can just see that it makes sense. But if kids just can't see it, they need to learn to use models that will help them imagine what is happening in a problem. So I would look for activities that will develop his sense of how things move in the world. And while you do that, play tons of games at home that require spatial reasoning skills.

It could be that his spatial reasoning skills are not as advanced as his mathematical / logical skills. But I think that there are a variety of strategies that he might employ in order to solve the geometric problems. Can you give an example of one that stumped him and maybe we can help you brainstorm some ideas to suggest when he is stuck on a challenging problem?

I teach at an in-person coop. I post all my answer keys on Canvas so that students or parents can check the homework. I also post the handouts, for kids who are absent. I also use it as a gradebook. I enter all the grades from the quizzes done in class. This year, I have started giving tests from Canvas. It does take a long time to prepare the tests - longer than writing a test on paper. But then the test is automatically graded. So I hope that it will be a time saver over the years. All the quiz and test grades are on Canvas, and parents can see the semester grade. You can easily sign up for a teacher account to Canvas and play around with it. I am sure that I have just scratched the surface with what it can do. I am fairly certain that the coop used Engrade previously, until it stopped being free. My daughter attends another coop which uses MindWave. I am not impressed. It is not as easy for me to understand how the grade is calculated. But I am not sure if that is the software, or the settings that the teacher has chosen. She has a separate website for handouts and links. And this course never has quizzes online. So maybe the gradebook is all that they wanted. But it is not easy to read.

I too like Canvas. It is very easy to use! I use the free version "free to teachers", so I do not know how it would work for a group of teachers

For a year or so, I made water kefir and mixed it with a strong tasting juice (like purple grape juice). My kids would not choose it, but they would drink it. I would not say that it was particularly fizzy once mixed with juice.

I think that it is part of their business model that a certain percentage of the rentals will be charged at "more than full price' to you. It is my belief that this policy is why the rental prices are cheaper at Amazon than at the college bookstore. I think that we assume that risk when renting from them. You just try your best not to be the one who damages a book or returns it late. We got one book this semester that was not in great condition when it arrived in August. We contacted them to complain, and they said that they 'put a note in the file'. So, we shall see what happens when it is returned next week... Anyway, I wish you the best, but there might be no better solution than paying for it. Since you should be able to keep the book, maybe you can sell it locally to get back a bit of the money. Please keep us updated if you manage a better deal so that others will know!