I agree, there are significant differences, particularly in format. But the presentation style and level of work seemed pretty seamless for us. Ds is young enough to appreciate the little comic strips at the start of every chapter. :lol:

I don't know that I'd mix the two. NEM takes an integrated approach (algebra and geometry mixed over three years), whereas AOPS separates the topics. We moved into NEM after PM6 and have been very happy with it. But math programs seem to be such a personal choice. People get more worked up over math than anything else, it seems! I love the problems in NEM -- lots of deep thinking and multiple steps required. And my son loves having different topics -- algebra and geometry of course, but also bits of number theory and special topics (if you do ALL the problem sets). A huge emphasis on problem solving.

It is a little disappointing to me, but I have to say that after having worked on WWS1 this year (and read ahead to the parts we haven't done yet), I have such a much better understanding of this approach. I think I feel able to implement this on my own if I need to. Don't get me wrong -- I would rather have WWS2 to guide me. But after WWS1 I have a much clearer idea of how to get to the end goal (high school level writing). In other words, just what you said. It messes up my plans a little, but I will adjust.

My mind has been going very much in the same direction as yours. I see the benefits of retention and discipline cross-over. Additionally, my ds is ready for higher level science materials, but he will not be able to do them at a one-year pace. So I'm planning to do multiple science courses with higher level books, but slowly over several years. My tentative plan for next year (7th grade)-- 1 year study of human biology and health (life science) begin Hewitt's Conceptual Physics Earth Science on weekends The human body and physics will be our academic focus. The earth science will be more casual, though we will have a text to guide us. Dh has a geology background, so we will do it as a family on the weekends. I hope to spend a couple of hours on it several weekends a month over the next several years. We already enjoy sky-watching and hiking and visiting geological features as a family, so I think this study will be fun for all of us. The next year (again, tentatively) we will continue with the Conceptual Physics and perhaps begin a high-school level biology text along with the weekend earth science.

I write like that too, and I'm also left-handed.

:iagree: We found some videos to watch about Kepler and that was very helpfu (maybe SaDonna linked them?). This is my ds' paper. It hasn't been revised. ************ Kepler's Discovery of Elliptical Orbits Draft 1 In Johannes Kepler's childhood, most astronomers thought that the stars and planets orbited around the earth, which was at the center of the solar system. This theory was called geocentrism. Then an astronomer called Copernicus came along with a new theory that the sun was at the center of the solar system and all the planets orbited around it. This theory was called heliocentrism. Johannes Kepler studied astronomy when he attended university in the 1590s. Kepler studied with one of Copernicus' followers and from him he learned the theory of heliocentrism. Next he helped astronomer Tycho Brahe in his observation of the planets' orbits. From Copernicus's theory they thought that the planets had circular orbits. In their observation of Mars, they noticed that it had different speeds at different times. Mars moved in a way that they could not decipher. Tycho Brahe died, but Kepler continued Brahe's research on his own. The orbit of Mars was his focus for the next five years. Kepler failed forty times to find a mathematical formula for the movements of Mars, but he kept trying. Kepler said of his work, "If God is concerned with astronomy, which piety desires to believe, then I hope that I shall achieve something in this domain." In 1605, Kepler finally understood that the orbit of Mars was an ellipse rather than a circle as Copernicus had said. This theory explained the strange patterns of Mars because the planets moved faster when closer to the sun and slower when farther away. Today we call this theory "Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion".

Give it a try. What do you have to lose? If you like it and keep a garden, kohlrabi is very easy to grow. I like kohlrabi braised in butter with some chopped tarragon. Delicious!

I used to do that, but then I realized that in our family we only hang the towels up AFTER they've been used. Since they are wet at that point, they need to be spread as wide as possible on the towel rack. So the fancy thirds folding never had its intended effect. Now that I have a linen closet with wide but short shelves, I have switched to folding them half-half-half. The result is wider and flatter and of course has the edges sticking out. But it seems to work better in my closet and is slightly faster. OP, if your family doesn't like how you do it, it sounds like you have the perfect assistants to hand the job over to!

I started using Image Grammar this winter with my 6th grade ds. We do a lesson from it about twice a month. He and I both love it, and he's been incorporating the ideas into his other writing. The book is packed full of teaching ideas and writing projects enough for many years. I can see coming back and doing several the exercises over again with a high-schooler too.

I don't get holes and I'm not thin. In fact, I've only heard of the hole problem on this forum. If they're around the belly-button, that's above the waistband for most people. Otherwise, I would think the waistband (or button or buttonhole or zipper) of the pants might be to blame. Right at belly button? No idea. Maybe from a seatbelt? Of course your seatbelt should be lower than your belly button, but many people position it incorrectly.

We call our cat CP.

Interesting article. This was a discouraging quote, though he followed it with some useful tips.

November, nonagon, nonagenarian. If November is disqualified, then I have no idea.

So, to think of 30 words (three for each prefix), look up their definitions and then copy them? Or could they just write, "Bicycle = a cycle with two wheels"? You can recycle a lot of the ideas: pentagon, hexagon, etc. Is that allowed? If those short cuts are allowed, I'm thinking it would take my ds 30-60 minutes. Probably at least 40.

So it's not which of these to read but which of these to read *aloud*? In that case, I'd say Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. It has heavy themes, and I always like to do those as read alouds so we can stop and discuss.

One shallot is less of a pain in the butt to peel and mince than five or six, but still plenty annoying. But so delicious.

Use quotation marks or italics when you want to refer to the word itself.

Do you have a recommendation for a "full-fledged algebra/trig based physics" text? Thanks!

I make something like this too. I really like it with raw sweet corn and lots of cilantro. I'm trying to think of what other bean dishes we make during the summer. We definitely eat them more in the cold weather. But we do make -- Tex-Mex -- tostadas, tacos, etc. baked beans a few times for a cook-out hummus and other bean spreads white bean crostini

In one of the news articles I've read on this issue, they identified the correct answer here as "C Annoyed", explaining that the animals were annoyed with the pineapple for "tricking" them. *shrug*

A great book involving the Gold Rush is By the Great Horn Spoon.

They just left out a bunch of details, as summaries often do. Nothing against FOX in particular. One part that confused me was this -- The phrase "realized the fate" made me think that he heard this comment after having searched for the planes and finally learned that they had been buried. The Herald article made the timeline clearer for me. He heard the comment fifteen years ago and has spent the intervening years searching for the buried plane. Another point of confusion -- The Herald article explains more fully -- The Herald article also mentions that they've used ground radar to identify the contents of the crate as Spitfires and other little details. If you liked the original article, you'll probably like the other one even better.

The original article that FOX culled from is here at the Sydney Herald and has quite a few more details. The FOX one left me scratching my head in a few places.

These are a couple of threads I've recently bookmarked on writing. Perhaps it's one of them. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=350368 http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=239259 (check posts #33 and 34)

"Full of hope" is the traditional accepted usage, as in-- The puppy looked hopefully at the basket of dog treats. The question is whether it should be used in the second sense, as in the sentence -- Hopefully I will do well on my exam. The first sentence in the paragraph explains what they mean by "beyond" the two meanings.