No help. We did the class ourselves at home by reading the book and working through all the problems. We learned from the solution book as necessary. We did not use anything else. How much does she actually use the book problems - I'm not sure how much the online class does.

AoPS! like so many others.

I think there is a point in finishing for some kids and for others it is not worth the frustration, stress, time, etc. It really depends on your child. As I've said, some of my kids will do the book and others will not.

I've asked the same question. I took my oldest through AoPS Int. Algebra and I want to move my second straight on to precalc. In looking at a lot of algebra texts, all or almost all of Algebra 2 is covered in the AoPS intro book. Some books cover hyperboles and ellipses. Matrices are occasionally touched on in algebra (but often wait until precalc). Precalc is a combination of more advanced algebra plus trig. I will be taking my second son straight from the Intro to Algebra text to precalc.

Yes, we signed up as a three person team. You can choose to sign up as three individuals or as a team (which is slightly more expensive as you are paying for four). For your team score, they average all four individual scores (so you are averaging in a zero) and then add the team test to it. Annoying as we placed not far from getting a trophy even with a zero averaged in, but I still thought it better to have a team. Since then my homeschool team has won trophies yearly at our chapter and sent students to state every year.

I plan to add the Great Course lectures to Thomas Sowell's book and pdf questions.

Every once in awhile I find that certain puzzles just don't click with us - that's okay. If you are learning lots from the program then you are good. I remember having problems with some of the toothpick puzzles, and we don't usually have any problem. Don't forget also that sometimes you can learn from reading the solutions.

My son had a lot of fun as an individual (6th grade). As a 7th grader, we recruited two friends and had a "team" of 3. As an eighth grader we had a full team of four and now I take about 8 to chapter. The experience is very similar as an individual compared to a team, other than you don't have friends to compare answers with at breaks. As a 6th grader, my son won "best" in his school (only one) and best new school. I would definitely recommend going as an individual. It makes no difference if the schools are hostile to homeschoolers or not since you aren't allowed to join their team even if they were friendly. Same problem with crossing geographic borders - everyone on the team must live in the geographic confines of your chapter -- you could meet together for club activities and then compete in different chapters if necessary. I have found most of the teachers and administrators very nice and excited that we are participating as homeschoolers. I have also found that Mathcounts takes some average students and inspires them to learn more math for the next year. It has been very positive for us.

Mathcounts is easy. My first year I only registered my son as an individual competitor. For the past many years, I've been taking a team both to chapter and state. For a team, Mathcounts does have some requirements about living within your chapter and you sign a form saying you legally homeschool, etc. Mathcounts provides a Club in a Box if you have a group of at least four, but you can easily do it without this as well. Once you register, you have access to the website with all the past club materials that you can download. Take old tests for practice. Mathcounts mini's are great as well - google for the Mathcount mini website with the worksheets that go with the videos. If you have specific questions, I'd be glad to answer if I can.

My 12 year old has just decided that she wants to do this. Recently she's been doing a lot of "doodling" with words and she just finished Bravewriter's Short Story class.

I like using real objects. I use metric rulers, measuring cups marked in metric, graduated cylinders, masses that they can feel. Using concrete objects works much better with younger (and often older) kids.

There are a lot of negatives to being locked into a path that you might not otherwise choose. I'd be careful about this, especially if unsure.

What's the problem?

What do you mean by online assistance?

I was unsuccessful teaching my daughter fractions with SM. We tabled it and did other math. She now understands them after finishing Beast 4. I don't know if this is due to being older, different teaching approach, second time through, but Beast did the trick. She's moved on to being able to do fractions in her prealgebra program (not AoPS yet).

I was also going to suggest Derek Owens for calculus. It is self-paced so you can move through anything already covered, take breaks as needs to learn other stuff, etc. I'm not sure AoPS is what you need to fill in holes. Maybe Kahn academy? or look to someone else for suggestions in filling in gaps.

I've only done classes through AoPS and PA homeschoolers. Neither has software I have to download - both are web-based.

Hands on, active classes: Hands on science, art, PE

I like to pick catalogs of homeschool curriculum (like Sonlight or Veritas Press) that uses a lot of literature/historical fiction and then go down their reading list for audio books for my 2e kids.

There are kids that can skip prealgebra entirely (like go from Singapore 5 to AoPS Algebra), but they are uncommon. Others can take the prealgebra foundation and apply it to AoPS style problems. Many have difficulties jumping into AoPS style problems -- they force you to think. Many older kids in algebra would still have trouble with AoPS prealgebra, simply because the style is different. Kids that manage to be able to AoPS style problems can almost always apply that knowledge to other problems. ... edited since I just notice that you really asked if kids can come from a different preA program to AoPS. Certainly. Lots of kids have transitioned to AoPS Algebra from all sorts of backgrounds. They did it all the time before the prealgebra book was out (like my oldest did). However, I was very happy to see the prealgebra book come out as it makes a smoother transition from elementary math to AoPS.

I think it is potentially hard to skip chapters in AoPS. It might be possible while learning the material elsewhere, however I suspect there might be difficulties. AoPS builds upon itself so much and builds problem solving techniques as it goes along. If your daughter skips ahead and then has problems, consider that it might be from skipping chapters. I really all the chapters that are not algebra based - all the geometry, counting and probability,and statistics in the AoPS PreA book.

Audio books Teaching company - audio lectures YWAM biographies Adventures in Odyssey.

If I was racking up large fines quickly, I'd figure out how to do something about it: Check out fewer books. Track due dates. Return on time. :closedeyes: I don't rack up fines very fast. Our library will let kids (not usually the adults) "read off their fines" twice a year. It is only during a specific week, and if you come it during that time and read while AT the library they will forgive about $2/15 minutes of reading. It's now been years since I've had to pay any fines, but I've accidentally racked up some the past few weeks - hoping we can read off the fines before they get too high and don't let us check out books.

ACT math score of 23 is only 67th percentile math score of 25 is 79th percentile math score of 28 is 91st percentile I don't think grades match ACT scores - for lots of reasons as listed above, but I would look at where the score places the student compared to others and consider if you think that is a fair assessment. A hard working student could certainly have A's, but I'd make sure it's a decently challenging curriculum and that you are not just moving your student along in something easy.

Some great advice I got before starting homeschooling, was to simply budget in curriculum failures. Give yourself permission to waste some money on what you thought would be good choice, but turned out bad. Dump it and buy what you need. Of course, you shouldn't waste too much money this way, but sometimes it's impossible to know what will and won't work.