If he's solid on fractions and decimals, then there is no reason to repeat them with LOF. You could start with the first prealgebra book in that series. You might look at Ed Zacarro's books as another supplement.

My analytical math boy did great with IEW. I've taught IEW classes to kids that love to write and the parents have loved the results. I'm not sure it's what you are looking for, but it might be just the tool you need.

Logic Safari is a good series of puzzles for different ages.

I've done a lot of classes that are more specialized and take a lot of work (like hands on chemistry), but some classes that I really like that are: Detective Club http://www.amazon.com/Detective-Club-Mysteries-Young-Thinkers/dp/1593630654 More Detective Club Chocolate Caper http://www.amazon.com/Great-Chocolate-Caper-Mystery-Teaches/dp/1593634994/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394287240&sr=1-1&keywords=chocolate+caper Mystery Disease http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Disease-Mark-Bohland/dp/1593631103/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394287293&sr=1-1&keywords=mystery+disease Also, NIH has put together a curriculum on bioethics that was really good.

I agree that glasses without therapy can make the convergence worse in the long-term. Ask lots of questions. My kids are in VT as well as having glasses. When my daughter put her glasses on the first day, she played a board game that night. She was reading the cards aloud and we all were struck by how fluently she was reading - I had never heard her read like that. She simply has low plus glasses, no prism or anything else. My boys got microprism glasses, and then we added microprisms to my glasses as well. They took some getting used to, but make it easier for all of us.

Hope this helps. Simply getting glasses to reduce the stress of reading has made a big impact on two of my kids (dramatic for one).

I'm planning on using Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. It's not a curriculum, but it does come with discussion questions.

1) if the absolute value of x-2 is 8, then this means it is eight units from zero, it can be either eight steps in the positive direction or eight steps in the negative direction. Therefore x-2 = 8 --> x=10; or x-2= -8 --> x= -6. Not sure if that helps. 2) degree of function - I'm lazy today and don't feel like explaining it in English; if no one else does I'll come back to this thread. 3) All the graphing in AoPS should be done by hand with no help from a calculator. At the minimum, a few basic points should be labeled so you can see the scale of the graph. If graphing trig functions often pi or pi/2 is labeled. Oftentimes the x or y intercepts can be labeled. Any asymptotes should be labeled.

I would list exactly what she did on her transcript and say it is for 8th grade. Don't downplay her accomplishments - if schools don't know what she has finished it won't do her any good to be placed in a class that doesn't challenge her. I would be specific with any schools you are applying to that you want her to start as a 9th grader. Talk to the schools specifically about your concerns about her age and abilities.

I would suggest doing some evaluating as to why his reading speed is low. As the previous poster said, vision issues are a common reason for slow reading speed and doing vision therapy with a developmental optometrist may be what you need. Oftentimes vision issues cause slow reading, frequently loosing the spot, being "tired" from reading. Other visual symptoms by occurs such as tearing, double or blurry vision, headaches. It also might be helpful to do an evaluation for learning disorders. Does he have trouble decoding the words?

Change your grading scale. It sounds like AoPS is working for you. Don't penalize the student for struggling through problem sets in the process of learning. Test what he's learned and if he does well, reward him. Also I've heard staff from AoPS say that an "A" grade is often getting 70-80% of regular end of chapter problems and 1/3-1/2 of the challenge sets.

Interesting. Different states may have different cutoffs for how many move on to state. In the above post it says that the state competition may be capped at 375 - no way we'd have that many at state here in KY. I'm glad we have a decent number of student advance as individuals from our chapter (as well as three teams). Typically half the students in the top 12 of the state come from our chapter.

It depends on your chapter size. In our chapter typically about 160 kids compete and the top three teams move on to state and the top 8 individuals not on the top teams move on to state. Most of the chapters in our state only send two teams and fewer individuals; small chapters might send as few as one team and two individuals.

I meet on Friday afternoons from Nov. - Feb. I teach chemistry lab in the same time slot in the fall and spring. In the past we've occasionally met some on other days in the fall. We usually have a pizza party the week after the chapter competition, but otherwise my group doesn't meet in the spring. This year I've got a team of 7th graders that are really hoping to make to state next year as a team - one did this year and two others were very close. This group has talked about getting together over the summer to do some Mathcount minis.

If you tell me what sort of hours, cost equipment, etc you are wanting to put into a lab I'd be glad to give you some ideas. You may have to private message me as I don't always pay attention to these threads. I teach the entire Illustrated Guide book from my home. I teach a Wacky chemistry lab in co-op, not purely lab, but cool memorable experiments, mostly based on Brian Rohrig's book I mentioned above. I let other people teach the textbook learning so I can't really comment there.

The selected labs you mention are similar, though very different, to the Illustrated Guide. They generally teach the same concept, often with different chemicals and on a much smaller scale. I've done a few of the labs. They do tend to be shorter and possibly doable in a co-op setting. I was referring to the book, Illustrated Guide, when I said it probably wouldn't be a good fit. Most of the labs take at least 1 1/2 hours and many take 2-3 hours. I am not willing to take the chemicals to co-op settings and personally, I wouldn't want to transport the equipment. To effectively teach the subject of chemistry it takes time and I don't think you'd have time to also teach Illustrated Guide. When I teach Illustrated Guide, I teach in 3 hour classes, as a significant portion of the labs take 3 hours. It takes about 100 hours of lab time (plus set up and write ups) to finish the book. Of course, you can pick and choose, but other lab set ups would work better if you are not exclusively teaching lab. The small scale labs you refer to might work, but I'd tend to go in a different direction if not devoting a lot of lab time to it.

For a homeschool team, you must have students from your geographic region that is your chapter. Everyone must sign a waiver saying they homeschool by the laws of your state and live within the geographic region. I have each of my kids sign the waiver with their own individual school of record (for me Last name homeschool) Everyone that registers as part of your math club also agrees that if they are not picked as one of the top four (for the team) or as individual with the team (six individuals) then they will not break off and form a different team. Schools that are competitive can't have more than one team and neither can a single math club. Potentially more than one homeschool group can each register within the same chapter. Mathcounts became much pickier with homeschoolers a few years ago after two main things were happening (as I understand it) - some homeschoolers from across a state were getting together to form a super team and some kids from top schools who didn't make the school team were making a team and calling themselves "homeschoolers". It has always been easy for me to work with everyone involved in Mathcounts and it's been a great experience. I've taken individuals to state the past few years and next year our current team is likely to make state.

I don't have a great suggestion as to what textbook to teach for co-op as I only teach lab from my home and co-op settings. I teach Illustrated Guide from my home and I don't think it will work for what you are describing. My favorite resource for co-op group teaching is 101 Intriguing Labs, Projects and Activities for the Chemistry Classroom by Brian Rohrig. I picked this book up at a convention. The problem is that when I google it I can't find it available -you could email the author if you want. I have the other book by Brian Rohrig and they are great but more for younger demonstrations.

While parts of the class may be easy, there will probably be challenging parts as well since the class covers topics including algebra, geometry, number theory, counting and probability. Have fun.

I'd still probably recommend the basic class. You can always drop the class in the first two weeks if it's too easy.

For Mathcount minis - I print off the worksheet that goes with the video. I have the kids work the problems at the beginning first (the ones before "the problem"). Pick a mini that the initial problems can be done - if these problems are too hard, then it is probably not worthwhile to do the video. I show the video on my computer and then they work on the next problems. We discuss all the problems together. If you use the Mathcount mini's in meetings, make sure you can do them first - some are very hard. The first year of minis (1-9) do not have solutions, but the rest do. So far, I haven't had more than five students at meetings, but next year I expect to have many more. Next year I plan on sometimes splitting my group so that some can work on a mini and others work problems with me; I will have my oldest son mentor some of the students when we split the group. My oldest son who won chapter and was a question away from making the national team says that the best preparation for mathcounts was Alcumus and Mathcount minis. As a coach, I find the minis fantastic for taking a single subject deeper.

My severely dysgraphic 9th grader is doing Bravewriter's The Writer's Jungle with success. I'd say it's the first thing he's ever been successful at in writing - it's been a long process. I hope to continue Bravewriter next year. We haven't done a class, just the Writer's Jungle.

I also coach a Mathcounts team. Until the test is released we are not to discuss problems or scores - not even saying easy or hard according to Mathcounts. They say you can state whether you made it to state, but not anything else. In the fall, I send an email to our local email loop saying I'm putting together a team. We meet weekly from Nov. through Feb. I start with some of the fun activities provided by Mathcounts and then move on to more teaching. I often give them 5-10 problems to do and then we work through them together. I try to have both something they can learn and something fun for most of the weeks. We usually do one sprint and one target and then often more than one team test for practice. I teach a lot of counting and probability as well as number theory. These are subjects that can be taught to a wide variety of students and they usually don't know a lot. I've had students win trophies at both chapter and state as individuals. If my students want more old tests or problems I can provide lots, but I don't assign them. Another thing I often do at meetings are Mathcounts minis. These are fantastic for working on one topic and taking it a lot deeper. I started with my son competing as an individual and then started picking up students for a team. I've done it for four years now and am likely to do it many more.

With my weepy (boy), I am introducing algebra topics with Dolciani and then he's ready to tackle AoPS. My intention is to work through the challenge problems with him as he gets frustrated. Thanks for reminding my of Fred -it'd be right up his ally. I am taking algebra slowly with this boy. As he solidifies Allegra, I'm introducing geometry and probability. I haven't compared the levels of Fred to AoPS, but my oldest math loving boy who has thrived on AoPS says that Fred isn't nearly as hard as AoPS. He reads Fred for fun.

My second son, good at math but doesn't love it, tolerated AoPS Prealgebra. He did not like the first few chapters. I would pull from other math programs and then keep returning to AoPS. Mostly, he would get frustrated if he got to problems that he wasn't sure how to approach. I took it slow and added in other things. I always did the challenge problems together. Now he's moved on to algebra. We introduce topics with a different book (like Dolciani or NEM) and then do problems out of AoPS.