Be heartened that when you get to a really hard chapter it doesn't continue to get harder and harder. You'll be working along thinking how can I keep up this pace and then an easier chapter comes along. I find that chapter 7 with all the triangle stuff mentioned above is a really hard chapter. I just flag the review of that chapter as we turn back to it over and over. I also find the chapter on power of a point difficult - mostly because it uses so much from chapter 7.

I would just take the next step in English and math no matter what grade you call him. I'd teach science and history, but I'm not sure it matters too much the order in middle school. In general, I'd teach at his level and push him to step up to more work no matter if you call him 6th or 7th.

If that's your normal, you just think that is how everyone else also sees.

On the more expensive side, Brave Writer does one on one writing tutoring of just about anything you want. It wasn't set up for lots of small volleys back and forth, but lots of feedback and instruction and then student go work on it and turn it in for more feedback. The instruction and feedback was similar to what's given in their classes. I was told to email Julie Bogart directly and she set me up with someone. I asked a bunch of questions and explained what I was looking for and the tutor countered with how they saw it working before I paid. Make sure you know what you are getting before you pay or you might not be happy. (I was very happy as it was exactly what I needed).

Move on. Nothing in any of the high school sciences are dependent on her knowing the information. It might make chemistry or physics a little easier if physical science is completed, but probably not.

How to get approval for an AP course is a question I'll leave for someone else. However, if the student has learned the material by any means that is covered on an AP exam, then they can pay and take the exam. If the score is good, then it "might" get them college credit and will for sure look good on a transcript. If the student did not take an "official" AP course, then you would just list the course as Biology with AP exam rather than AP Biology (no big difference that I see if the AP score is good).

Take whatever is best for him for high school. You want good quality classes that will educate him and drive his passions. Don't worry about high school classes affecting medical school. They are necessary to get into college, but from there it's only the college classes that matter for the medical school. I have an engineering degree and then went to medical school. I accidentally overlooked one school's requirement of 3 more hours of biology classes than the others. I got a letter just before I graduated saying I was 3 hours deficient in biology. I wrote the medical school and made the argument that I had already proven that I was "teachable" and taking one more random biology class wouldn't make any difference in med school. They waived the requirement without any further argument.

With AoPS, I also set a time limit - if you've been working for 1 hour, then you've done enough even if you haven't finished. Some sections are just hard and long. Be aware the fist several chapters are the hardest to get through.

My ALs did Miquon alongside SM. I never did math facts practice as they just internalized them naturally. I let my kids pick what to do in Miquon, but I did have the rule that all the "C" pages had to be done in order as well as each other lettered section. Certain sections didn't make sense to do until others were finished - for example it's hard to do the multiplication and division section if you haven't done division yet. I'd put sticky notes on the first page of sections that were appropriate and then let the kids pick which pages to do - they could jump between sections or do lots in one section, it varied a lot. We always finished one book before moving on to the next. By the way, I never finished all the Miquon books with any of my kids - usually did the first four books of the Miquon series and then just did SM (or now doing Beast as well).

If you can only afford to do one thing at at time, I'd go ahead and do VT. VT will impact and improve all sorts of things. You know he has issues that need to be worked on through VT so it is bound to help. A neuropsych exam will answer a lot of questions and may point you in new directions, but it won't "fix" anything like vision therapy might do.

I'd worry most about math and English skills as well as life skills. Don't put ignore history and science, but I'd probably pick some solid middle level texts and read them - possibly aloud. I wouldn't worry about getting it all, as you can come back later and firm up history and science with higher level texts later.

I boil it down to bare bones - what has to be taught to keep moving. Usually keep doing math, reading, writing can be postponed temporarily, but not too long. I then do the bare bones priority schoolwork and take the rest of the day to explore learning opportunities - do physical activities, go on field trips, play family games, read-aloud books together, go to the library, do science experiments, build creations, watch educational shows, home improvement projects, housework, etc. You can find that you can learn a lot by doing life together - just don't let the kids waste away in front of a screen doing mindless activities all day.

I have the best luck by word of mouth. Ask lots of people for recommendations and then directly ask whomever you want.

You can purchase the pdf of Help for High School - it is basically the instructions for both the Kidswriter Intermediate Course as well as the Expository Essay course. It is written to the student. If you have a motivated student and you can help edit, then you could easily do this course instead of the online Bravewriter courses. I decided that I couldn't teach this myself (can't help my students with editing), and I find the teacher comments and how the instructors can pull out great writing from my non-writer worth the price of the online courses.

For those of you who are familiar with Derek Owens math and physics classes, I was wondering how they compare on the rigor of teaching. (My impression is that they are good.) I'm looking at them for a boy that will have completed all the Introduction series of Art of Problem Solving. Needing to make some decisions about where to go with precalculus. He would probably move on to an AP calculus after this. I know the physics is not AP level, but it sounds like a reasonable choice for an introductory physics course.

"I" don't like textbook literature, so I don't use the literature textbooks I've been gifted. Sometimes, they make a nice resource for me. If you like the textbook, I see no reason why you shouldn't use it.

I don't know how much copywork you should do, but there is a lot of value of learning grammar naturally through copywork - especially if you discuss one grammatical part of each copywork (not necessarily the whole thing)

I figure I'll email him when I'm ready and ask how I go about getting the half-price option. I don't see it anywhere on the website.

I do some tutoring by Google Hangouts (but I'm not offering). Some kids it works well for, others I refuse to do by hangout - only in person. There are a lot of dynamics and it may or may not work well for you.

I had no idea about the half price option even after reading all I could find on his website. I emailed him earlier today asking if there was any way to "purchase" physics and precalculus. He told me about the half-price option - says students have access to the videos and he provides the parents the answer keys. This option is only if you don't need any grading or other support such as questions answered.

MCT was not a good fit at all for me and my kids. I'll try to pull out some of the books and give more specific examples later, but here's the thoughts off the top of my head. I gave it a real try with kids in lower and upper elementary as well as middle school. Poor writing instruction - I didn't know how to "teach" writing using this. "I" understood the teaching of parts of speach, but it didn't seem to work for any of my kids. I just wouldn't click no matter how hard we tried. Ceasar's English didn't work well for teaching vocabulary to my kids and without learning the vocabulary there was no point in doing it. I think we learned a little poetry, but there are better ways for us to learn poetry. (My favorite things for teaching LA are SWB's lectures and generalities along with Brave Writer.) '

I'd email specifically, but I know the website says that you can accelerate, and I think it says he requests at least a 3-month payment if planning on doing the entire course and wanting everything graded.

Yes, I love Brave Writer - and I couldn't get through The Writer's Jungle myself. As I struggled with TWJ, I discovered that there was an online course - Kidswriter Basic which is basically TWJ with mom as the student interacting with the teacher and then teaching your own kids. They give assignments out of TWJ, you give them to your kids. You then "turn in" what your kids write and they give all sorts of feedback on how to improve the writing and then ask you to help you kids with the process of rough drafts/edits etc. I thought is was crazy to pay for the class after I already paid for TWJ, but I'm very glad I did. The class also gives you the opportunity to chat with other moms about the process, questions along the way, and what you are learning. I love the feedback from the Brave Writer instructors. If you don't like the BW philosophy then it's definitely not for you; if you need help implementing it, the you might consider the online class.

I love core D. I'm starting it for the third time this fall with a third grader (though it is great for older kids as well).

Okay, here are my initial thoughts: I like general how to without getting too specific. I find when you lay out sample schedules that I get annoyed. If feels like you are saying "this" is the right way. I get annoyed when I read things like in 4th grade, the student WILL do ...; there are lots of reasons why I might choose not to do this in fourth grade (or 9th or any other). I'd like to see it presented more of a guideline with why you might not follow as well. Maybe I want to combine my elementary kids. Maybe I've got kids with learning disorders. Maybe I have kids with wildly discrepant apptitudes - flying through math, while struggling with writing. I like to be told that here are the steps of progression and a general guideline as to when these should be mastered on average, but listed more as steps rather than this long at each step or ages. I love your lecture series for conferences, but I have a hard time finding that information in your books. I like here are some questions to ask. I like big idea outlines - do this in primary grades, middle grades, high school. I like lists of "good" curriculum that I can go check out for myself and then pick what suits my family the best. I don't find prices and where to order from so helpful as it's pretty easy to google that information. I've always felt you are more a history/English/literature sort of person and I love your recommendations here as well as foreign language and arts, but generally I've prickled when I read your math/science recommendations. (This coming from a math/science person). More generallities on special needs and where to look for resources. Barton reading and spelling AoPS - books and online courses (though with a warning that the online courses move rapidly) Beast Academy Singapore math MEP Miquon Zaccarro math books to supplement Balance Benders Bravewriter Teaching the Classics Mystery of History I love a lot of the logic books from Prufrock Press. It'd be nice to have more of list of where to find advanced/AP high school courses online. How to write a transcript and how to do course descriptions.