Is the cd useful or not necessary?

Currently Bookshare is free and Learning Ally is $99/year. I think I read somewhere that which one is free flip-flops depending on which gets a government grant. I signed my daughter up for Bookshare this spirng since it was free. She doesn't like the digital voice very much. This summer we got a year membership for Learning Ally and she loves it. She listens to school books as well as fun books on it daily. Bookshare now has an app so the books can be downloaded directly to my ipad and then carried around easily.

Do you like Cambridge Latin? What do you use? It looks like I might need the teacher manual, student manual, workbook, and maybe the cd. Do I need all of this? Do you add anything else to Cambride Latin?

Thanks regentrude.

To bill the insurance company, they have to have some kind of diagnosis/suspicion they are billing under. I'm not sure what the insurance co. does with this information.

:grouphug: hugs to you. Dysgraphia can be hard. I'be been told for years by friends that I'm doing things wrong. My favorite is that I'm teaching math wrong. :lol: I scribe all his answers. He's done math orally forever and he's incredibly good at math. For anything that isn't handwriting practice, I scribe. Last year I made him practice everyday writing his name. I figure this is the most important for forms, etc. Now he's 13 and very excited that he can remember how to write his name without thinking too much. This summer something clicked in his brain, and he picked up a pen and started wring math problems for the first time. I'm so excited. He's one of the top in the state in math, just don't tell anyone that he doesn't know all his lower case letters. Fortunately, while he probably has a reading disorder, he's so bright he accommodates well. Teaching spelling and the mechanics of writing (capitalization, punctuation, etc) is tough to teach as he never writes to practice this skill. Typing has been incredibly difficult to teach. Evidently this is often the case in dysgraphia. I think we are finally making progress in teaching typing. I get very tired of hearing that he's smart so it should be easy to learn. That's not how his brain works. I'd encourage you to separate writing form most subjects. Try to figure out how to teach things without the writing component. Be his scribe as much as needed. Hang in there.

I'd get both also. The material is TAUGHT in such fabulous way in the comic book texts that I wouldn't skip it.

A few public school students need a grade for permission to skip their ps math class. By far, most students don't ask for a grade according to AoPS.

I think an average kid could use the book, but not without help at my home. My kids need someone to hold their hand, help them wrestle with the hard problems, look askance at things that are completely new, etc. They need someone to look at what they are doing and say, I think you need a little more help in this area (then I pull my NEM book and do a few problems). Even my mathy kids would have trouble tackling it on their own.

Part of it is subjective and therefore subject to human error. My son scored within the spectrum range on the ADOS, but they still didn't want to label him. They said, they didn't think that he's score like that on a different day, but I watched the test and his answers/reactions, etc were exactly him.

The first AoPS Basics Vol 1 starts with logrithms - not your simple stuff. Vol. 1 and 2 books are not intended to teach the material, but provide more insight into harder problems in those subjects. THey are often used as competition prep. Any of the intro series would be a great place to start. Prealgebra is a great book.

Beast academy isn't contest prep, but is a great curriculum for contest prep.

My 13 year old says AoPS is AWESOME!!! He knows I will let him out of dishes and laundry by him asking to go do more math - he may do anything from the textbook, Alcumus, or just talk math stuff on the forums.

AoPS could be a good fit if your daughter is willing to wrestle with some of the concepts. She won't be able to progress unless she understands concepts like exponents, but my non-mathy child is learning from the prealgebra book where in the past he "memorized" the concept, but didn't fully understand it. AoPS hasn't been easy, but he is now actually understanding the concepts and I think he's even enjoying it.

Something I love to add for many ages is Brian Rhorig's 150 Captivating Chemistry Experiments as well as the 150 more book. The Elements by Theodore Grey is a beautiful book.

I sometimes use post it note stickies for two bookmarks (that don't fall out) if two kids are reading the same book. If you don't want them reading the same book, I would just have the more advanced child skip a book and then come back to it when the first is done reading it. Mixing up the order a little won't be too hard on the kids - mostly just keeping track of it by mom. I copy the list at the front of the IG and cross off each reader as it is read by a child. If my child needs to skip one, I know where to go back to for the next book.

Glad you found something you like. We love it here. I'm looking forward to starting a child in their per algebra book. I have one about to start int. algebra and one in beast academy. On that note, if you have younger kids beast academy is new and awesome (also by AoPS).

I wouldn't worry about it too much. If he's doing the pre-algebra class, I probably wouldn't get too much into the book. Watching the videos are fine, but it's hard to go too far without also doing the book. He might be ready for alcumus, but without prealgebra, he might not be ready yet. My options would be: alcumus an Ed Zaccarro book Marvin Gardner's short puzzles mathcounts (might be a little hard yet) don't worry about math yet, and focus on science :001_smile: or something else

As others have said, there are not really any requirements - you set your requirements to graduate from you school. There are definite requirements to get into college. If you look at the best practice document for KY homeschoolers, science is not even required to teach, though I always strongly recommend it. :001_smile:

Next year I'm using AoPS Prealgebra. This wasn't out for my oldest, but I'm looking forward to using it with my second. He's good at math, but self-proclaims he doesn't like math.

When I do double math it is typically mom's choice in the morning. In the afternoon/evening, I give the choice to the child of continuing whatever we did in the morning or something that may be more fun/enrichment/etc. It's still mom's choosing of the choices but I give some of the power to the student to choose what they'd like to do for the second session of math.

Make Electronics http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Learning-Through-Discovery/dp/0596153740

Just some more thoughts to some of the questions posted... I use my glassware on the stovetop all the time. Technically, it is a extra stovetop burner bought just for chemistry so it can be abused by me, my students, and chemicals. I've never had trouble heating glass on it. I buy all my glassware from HST - generally it's not cheaper anywhere else and I love their service. HST is a good place to buy a few chemicals, but if you are buying much it is cheaper elsewhere. As mentioned above Elemental Scientific sells small amounts of many, many chemicals to individuals at great prices. There service can be very slow however. ... Home Scientist has been a great resource over the years as I've taught the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments to many students.

I'm biased against micro-chem mostly for the reasons you listed. It seems contrived and packaged. For some this is exactly what they want and need. Like Regentrude said, it is probably better for learning how to do a good lab notebook and take good data. I feel like I'm filling in the blanks. Some students would not learn well from a DIY approach and you'd spend a ton of time and not learn much. I've learned tons from the DIY approach. I now teach from the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Labs. I'd go with your gut feeling and do what you have planned.

I read AoPS aloud to my oldest - down to every single problem. As long as I'm doing that, I do every single problem. I have also scribed for years, but just in the past few months, he's beginning to do some writing. He's just about to finish all of the Introductory books. I looked at some video based math, but needed the math to challenge him as he's very gifted at math. My third is even more severely dyslexic. She has just started Beast Academy and loves it. Again, I have to read everything. She is slow to work the problems, but gets the logic.