I have a 200 g 0.01g digital scale that I use for biology and chemistry. It is rare that you need to weigh more in chemistry - if you do you can measure out 200g + 200g and add them together to make 400g. Either scale should be fine. For home use, it isn't really necessary to be more precise than 0.1g, but the more precise the better.

Thanks.

I would "make" my child do what I thought best. For some decisions, I allow them to have a lot of input, other decisions I as the parent decide. As parents, we make decisions all through the years for our kids. When it is the same decision as the majority, then people don't think we are doing something wrong, but we must raise our kids to the best of our ability. I know many thought my decision to homeschool was "wrong". I have no intention to put my kids in school, but many who thought I was wrong to homeschool, would now say that I am wrong if I put my kids in public school.

I've asked myself the same question and previewed some of both the courses you list and I like Lewin lots better.

I wouldn't call AoPS just for "compitition math". It's good math that draws lots of insightful problems from math competitions. Why spend lots of time designing new problems when the work has already been done? As regentrude said, the last few chapters of int. algebra are geared toward competition math and are okay to be skipped according to the introduction.

Credits earned in 8th grade don't generally count toward high school. Algebra 1 "counts" for the reason it enables the student to take higher math in high school, but usually the credits and grade point are only counted for the courses taken in 9th-12th. I'm aiming to have 1 credit US history, 1 credit World History, 1/2 credit Economics, and 1/2 credit Government for high school. I'm not sure it matters too much when you take them.

I think it is fine for you to return it if you have found it is not for you. That is why they have their return policy.

In college, I kept a lab notebook very similar to what Illustrated Guide suggests. This notebook was what was graded. My chem students keep a lab notebook. If their parents what some other write up, it's up to them, but none do. My own son will keep a modified notebook with all data and conclusions. It will not be a "good" notebook since he is severely dysgraphic. I plan on him writing up a more formal report about once per semester. I don't think it would be worthwhile to learn LATEX just for this, however we plan on learning LATEX this year for writing up math proofs.

I'm enjoying Discovering Music for music history.

I think he needs to learn to deal with his frustrations. I'm not sure what the best path is to teach him, but I don't think public school is the answer to learning to deal with everything. Public school could part of your answer IF it is paired with some training in how to deal with his frustrations. Otherwise, I think public school would be a place that he would have a negative experience based on how he deals with things.

If you are trying to "catch up" on something like math, then I schedule it for short periods of time, but more than once per day. The schedule is fine if you are challenging her to learn, but not pushing her past her limit. What that schedule looks like for each of us varies.

I like AoPS Prealgebra - excellent math, thorough, can't get through the book without actually understanding it. AoPS is certainly not for everyone, however.

For AoPS books, we usually do a section per day and then spend a week on the review problems. This varies some as sometimes we do two sections and the number of days of review problems depends on the length of the chapter.

You'd have to arrange a proctor who isn't related. AMC has rules about who they wish to be proctors. I had a minister proctor the AMC 8 for my son by himself. It was a hassle. Fortunately, we have a local university that proctors (and pays for) the AMC 10/12 for any interested students.

AoPS builds on itself and it would not be a good idea to jump ahead in the text without first mastering the material already presented in earlier chapters or sections. Also the bulk of the problems in AoPS is in the review sections.

I use textbooks to meet my goals. For some goals, it may require doing the entire text, while others goals are met my using portions of texts. I wouldn't presume to say that a child has covered algebra if they can't do what is in an algebra book, but I think a credit of history may focus on things not in a text if enough hours are spent on the subject.

Your schedule looks fine. The rigor of the course will stand out.

After listening to Susan Barton address this question, I think these levels will be very helpful for my daughter - we are on level 7 right now. However, depending on the age, I think these levels can and should be put off until older. Susan Barton generally recommends these for middle school.

I'm reading this right now and I think it is a great book. The author has a lot of discussion questions on his website with what page of the book the answer is on.

Got it. I often notice those things, but I've been traveling.

Ok, what am I missing?

This is from her website (Bright Solutions) and is similar to the list she handed out at the presentation I was at this summer. Scroll down to the section called Reading Methods that Work. http://www.dys-add.com/getHelp.html#anchorReading

I am loving the app for my daughter at level 7. It was getting to where we were dreading setting up the tiles everyday because there were so many tiles by that level. I love that every word in the instructor guide is prebuilt and we just have to hit next. It has made the sessions go much faster and more fun. You don't need to buy the app at all. You can still just buy the original box with the tiles. For people buying a new level there is a choice to buy the level without the tiles for $10 less if you are just planning on using the app. Susan Barton herself, does not recommend buying the app for the first few levels. I could see it as a professional, but I think the tiles are useful for the first 3 levels.

Lisa, What horrible service from ES. Have you asked if they can send what they have and send the back ordered things later? I try to order only once per year from them, but often twice per year. That have always sent what they have and a small amount is sometimes back ordered up to 3 months. Hope you get your chemicals soon.

My 7th grader is doing the advanced version of Exploration Education and loving it. It has a computer based lesson followed by hands on project and experimentation. They build some cool projects and do a lot of experiments with them.