Bravewriter - though I'm off to look up OYAN.

Agreeing with the above. Take it one day at a time. Keep working on handwriting. Separate handwriting skills from other subjects--can he spell with tiles? dictate? teach typing, etc. Those are not necessarily easy answers since typing and language don't necessarily come easily to kids with language learning disabilities. Over the years, I've learned that you certainly can't predict what these kids will do and how they'll change. You just have to go with the flow. My oldest who is severely dysgraphic (still didn't know all his letters in middle school) was still dictating into high school and had not learned to type, despite lots of trying to learn. Something clicked this past year and now he's typing and taking notes in class. Who knew? I thought he'd need a scribe through college. On the other hand, teaching letter formation to my daughter was never hard, but her writing difficulties are harder for me to deal with this year as the work has picked up.

I would try your best to diplomatically communicate with the teacher your goal of continuing the course but choosing to have your son not do all of the assignments as you will be assigning other work at home. I'd ask for a listing of the test grades without a final grade for the course so that you can determine how to incorporate all of the work done into your grading system. (I'd do this after writing something similar to what Sebastian suggests.

I've done some MEP, but it's not my favorite resource. That said, I chose not to skip the geometry sections are they are a great foundation before hitting the harder geometry in AoPS. I tend to like Beast and SM before moving on to AoPS, but one of my kids needed to move slower with more drill and MEP was perfect for her.

My kids have like the literature classes by Center for Literature. I've been impressed with the skills they take away and apply to any other literature. We've only done the literature and not the writing.

I agree with the above. Most importantly she needs someone who understands the material to teach it to her. Someone who already knows how to break down the problem can sit with her to prompt her in the right direction. How many coins add up to $28? How are the coins values related? What variable should we call the first one? Now what is the value of the other (in terms of the first)? Now can you write an equation showing that these two coins add up to $28. Solve for your variable. Now solve for the value of the other coin. It sounds like she needs a person to help her step through the problems to teach her how to do it. You can't be that person when you don't understand it and many people can't learn simply from a solution book.

Lesson learned. In your original post you said you thought you were going to have to admit defeat - I read this as maybe dropping the class??? I guess you have a few choices: - Drop the class and do your own thing - Continue with the class as is - argh! - Choose to use the class a resource. Pick and choose what you want to use but make yourself the primary teacher of the course and edit it to your delight. Create your own course using this class as a resource for some of the assignments and fill it in with your own. Create your own grading scale based on your course criteria. Not the way you want to go for a class you pay big bucks for, but I'd consider this over completely dropping the class. I'd probably also communicate to the teacher that you will be choosing to have your son ignore certain assignments and possibly you don't want any final grade for the course.

As Mark T said, matrices are important. However many people never get to them before precalc. It is an often ignored topic in algebra 2 classes. I managed to be in engineering numerical methods when the professor started talking about matrices and I had to raise my hand to ask "What's a matrix?".

Ask the teacher whenever you don't know. Don't be afraid to ask parent questions. Based on the syllabus of one of our online teachers, I've adjusted my thinking to "I" am still the primary teacher and I choose to use the online teacher as a tutor. I typically don't change anything, but it has changed my thinking so that if I feel something should be done a different way at my home, I can email the teacher on behalf of my son, or just change the assignment if it is something that is not turned in. No big changes here, but it has changed how I approach the class.

I thought I read (about a year ago) that their dream was to have an online component similar to Alcumus. Not sure where I got that however. Wishing it was now.

A class on (mostly) human error disasters based on the book 10 Things Scientists and Mathematicians should know but are never taught. http://www.amazon.com/Things-Future-Mathematicians-Scientists-Rarely/dp/0967991544 There are plenty of things that can be taught in 30 minute bites. I did this book over one hour classes, but usually covered more than one disaster per class period. Lots of math and science discussion as well as learning about historical disasters.

Consider having a math tutor pick through her math skills and watch her work problems. They should be able to tell you where her weaknesses are as well as if she is weak on the understanding versus just making silly mistakes.

I only teach at home and don't use the classes, however my oldest thought the geometry was easier than the algebra. I didn't think my second son would end up doing the geometry since it was hard, but he's been plugging along and doing very well with it.

You'll have to get an updated driver's license eventually, so you might consider just going ahead and doing this so it's not an issue.

"I" love what Brave Writer has done for writing at my home. My kids don't love the classes, but prefer to write with Brave Writer classes if they have to do writing. :closedeyes: My dyslexic, dysgraphic son is finishing up the MLA Research Essay class right now through Brave Writer. The teacher has been fantastic at everything from being available for all the nit-picky questions, big and little. She's helped my son lots as well as helped me be the intermediary in helping him. Brave Writer has unlocked the creative side of my daughter's writing and now she's spending lots of time "doodling with words". The classes have taken my kids from "behind" in writing to better than their peers. In addition, their writing is unmistakably theirs. I'm impressed with the teacher feedback to each student no matter what level of writing the student is doing.

My son took the Int. NT class this past year (and I did it alongside him until the end when I didn't feel like keeping up with the theory). My impressions: - not having a book was not an issue for us - did no prep and had not done the Intro NT book for 2 years - make sure you are solid on modular arithmetic before starting the class - my son had not been exposed to the concepts yet, however it was obvious that many of the students had been exposed to much of the content therefore putting concepts together very quickly. - there are weekly proofs which are hard if you've not had exposure to that level of proof writing (my son had done a lot of proof writing already) - the last few weeks are harder theory - don't worry about mastering it all

Algebra 1 for ninth grade is just fine (even though you started in 8th). I'd look hard at what and why he is having trouble. Are his prealgebra skills solid? does he have any learning disorders? is he distracted? Whatever the problem, I would make sure algebra is solid before moving on - alternatively you can continue algebra while starting geometry, but having solid algebra 1 skills is critical to moving forward in math and science as well as important for college board testing. Consider having an outside person (math tutor) evaluate his skill set that you "think" he already knows and get their opinion on whether he is solid before you keep moving on. If you are building on a weak foundation, you are setting him up for lots of problems in the future.

Bravewriter classes are typically 4-6 weeks and start year-round. You might see what they are offering.

English 9 English 10 English 11 English 12 ... nice and boring. The course descriptions give the details of what was emphasized, but it doesn't fall into nice clear boxes for a transcript. Also most of those years include outside/online classes as part of the English credit. If I add all the credit pieces, it would be 1.5-2 credits per year, but I only give one credit for English as I don't feel that we are doing anything above and beyond what we should.

I aim for doing one section per day, but usually max it at an hour. I suspect I'll have to increase this time limit with my third however, as she is slow but persistent. (Mostly, give yourself permission to stop after so long as to not get frustrated with the math). For the review sections (review plus challenge), my kids usually spend 2-5 days on them. Oftentimes for the review sections, I set a goal of try to get to this point, but stop at this time. When we want a break from teaching, we use Alcumus to review chapters already done. I wouldn't worry about her being able to do the problems by rote and not "really getting it". You cannot progress through AoPS unless you understand the material. Also, don't worry if she struggles with more problems than in a typical program. Especially the challenge problems are hard -- some kids skip the challenge problems altogether and do fine, but I'd recommend doing as much as possible (but I think it's okay to skip some of the challenge if it's too frustrating). I've had kids who work every challenge problem and others that skip most of the challenge and are just fine (working with my kids as well as those I tutor).

There are many of us around that have gone from SM5 to AoPS Prealgebra. The main thing not covered in SM is negative numbers. I think the question is more if your child has the maturity of thinking to work through AoPS style problems and not get too frustrated. I love AoPS.

There is some variability based on the personality of the teacher, but the core teaching of the class is scripted and therefore the same across the board. I wouldn't worry about who the teacher is, but would pick based on time.

Agree you budget is overkill. Take at look at the microscopes Home Science tools sells - they also have a bunch of info on how to pick a microscope. You don't need the very top end of quality, but high quality is very good. Most/all high school microscopy is done without oil immersion. You can find similar scopes elsewhere, but HST is a very good starting as well as a good company to buy from.

My son (AoPS lover) is also loving watching the MIT opencourseware calculus videos.

I find that the online classes often ignore the problems in the book and do their own problem sets along with alcumus. This has the advantage of online grading, but I find that is skips some of the basic incremental teaching/learning that you get from the book. If you are having problems, make sure to spend some time with the book problems (easier said than done as I know time is lacking in the pace of the online class).