I don't think it's too old. I also don't feel very comfortable teaching it. DD took it through the WTMA in 7th grade and we supplemented with a little Kilgallon. If you do it self-paced you could and find it too easy, you could accelerate a little bit.

You should hear her reference it in person :). Not an "ugh" eye roll, though. More "I know, right?" one... :)

Bought it after attending her workshop at a conference but hadn't gotten to it yet and DD finishing 7th) will be returning to school next year. I think the premise is pretty intriguing and I would still consider reading it for self-education to be able to take advantage of teachable moments when the subject of books/literature comes up.

Based on those suggestions and reviews, we tried Videotext. It would have been phenomenal for me as a learner, I adored the philosophy and methodology but it wasn't well suited to DD (and probably wasn't well suited to her maturity level at the time, but live and learn....). AoPS was a clear winner a year or two later.

After pulling DD to homeschool in 4th grade to ensure that school wasn't getting in the way, and now planning on sending her back to school next year in 8th, to receive an excellent education, I have to agree. I probably could have written this, and this is advice I would give to myself back then, if I could....

I would worry about how increasingly challenging Latin is going to become if he's not solid in English grammar. Btw I ADORE Novare's philosophy too. I'd be trying to find a way to do it if we were going to HS next year (8th grade). We left CC over a lack of flexibility. Challenge becomes so time consuming in terms of sheer volume by the older grades that it seems unrealistic to try and "beef it up" or modify it. Best of luck. I skimmed Lori D's responses and agree that there's ways to make it work one more year before high school.

I am not experienced in music/music instruction but I can share my experience. My daughter started guitar lessons at her request as a barely 7-year-old. Her instructor said that, for him, taking students at 7-8 yo is pretty unusual, he generally starts around 9+. Maturity and willingness to practice have been demonstrated by DD enough that we have continued for a year and half. Yes, the student has to be willing to push through the initial finger-toughening stage. We have a half-size guitar IIRC and it suits her okay with some room to grow. She can't do bar chords yet but IDK if that would be a problem on an even smaller guitar or not? And I think the price was around $100-$150. HTH!

See p. vi and viii - your 4th graders place into 500. I'll second the comments about CLE being rigorous and suggestion to level down. You could possibly buy just the first book in each series and see how it feels in practice?

I think you have an error in score interpretation. I can pull up the reference in a minute (on. iPad) but look again at the last page of the 200-400 tests. Why would getting 7 points more on a test two grade levels below put one on par with a (still-passing score) over two more years worth of content?

Yes, I think I've seen the conversations on here (you, 8, and maybe lewelma too?) arguing that there really aren't any prerequisites for high school sciences. And even if someone were to argue that there's essential content, I'm pretty certain that DD would have no problem assimilating that information when needed. I suppose I was simply wanting an overview, the "hit the high points" kind of survey. Not so much because she needs it for success, but more just to avoid the "what?!? you've never learned about photosynthesis? (or mitosis or basic cell or human anatomy)." As in, to save her any embarrassment in her new classes at a new school (and okay, possibly me a tiny bit, although I'm pretty hard to embarrass, and I have no problem saying "what, we went deeper on this, this and this, so so what?" -IF- I'm given the opportunity to directly address it....).

I am looking more for suggestions on how-to, I think, than alternative options to meet the same goal. We are applying to private school for DD for 8th grade. We won't hear until June whether she is admitted so operating on the hopes that she is.... Anyway, we've been doing Rainbow Science double-time but DD has hit a slump or burnout with it during the Biology unit. Originally our plan was for her to finish the two year program in one year with the intention of her being ready for high school level sciences next year (probably co-ops). I read in many places here on the forums that it was do-able that way, particularly for an accelerated learner. Anyway, I want to switch to something else so as not to let these last 6 weeks or so go to waste, and to give her a break from what had become tedious. Ellen McHenry seemed fun and versatile and I'm not all that worried about meeting some kind of standards. HOWEVER, I had the idea to contact the school to see what she'd be doing next year as well as what had been covered in 7th grade. We have spent a LOT of time on the physical sciences (and others, like electronics, robotics) over our 5 years of homeschooling, and not so much on life sciences, so if they had already covered life sciences in 7th grade, I thought we should try to sort of beef that up a littl more before we're done. Well. You guessed it, next year is Physical Science, and this past year has been Life Science. So I already have Botany and Cells. Her stuff is a great buffet of choices but I get lost in the array of choices and could use a hand in shaping up a game plan. I really wanted to do her Chemistry. Wah.

I think the content is something every learner should be exposed to, but we mostly used the printed materials (and at the time we bought, it was written primarily for school/group use so some adaptation needed with my solo homeschooler). Yeah I think we had access to the same video materials as linked and I didn't think they added much, but then again I have a related professional background so pretty comfortable with the ideas in the content). You could just buy one of Dr Dweck's books and work from that. We could have covered the key points in a fraction of the time. But if I had to work from a regular book instead of from a structured program, it wouldn't have gotten done at all, kwim?

That's the typical age for the SAT, yes, but if you have a student finishing Calculus that young, what do you envision for graduation (early?), DE, etc? How old is your student?

It's the same in our state, you will only qualify for special education with a) a documented disability that b) significantly negatively affects performance, generally defined as testing significantly below grade level. I can't speak to how that plays out for 2e students as we left the public system partway through Kindergarten. But I know that they don't even test until 2nd grade for gifted programming. It is NOT a protected right.

Oops, UM type model is a embarrassingly redundant way to say University-Model type program. I understand UM to mean that people are expected to pick and choose only the courses that fit with their specific needs/goals. I am perhaps being a little ungenerous when I use "child care" to refer to the type of families that the OPs expressed concern about. It comes across as a rather destination-oriented, rather than process-oriented mentality. I drop off my child and you pour a little something into him and then I pick him up when you're done, and I don't have to do anything in between sessions. And if I am just here to use your services to fill my child's time with an activity (however beneficial it might be), then of course I expect you to make it as convenient as possible for me to do so. That is, I don't want to have to find a way to fill a block of time when the only thing offered during that time slot didn't meet my (enrichment) needs. A University Model puts the burden back on me to figure out the balance between meeting needs and effective use of my/our time. If I want to fill a time slot between academic courses with an enrichment course, then that's MY choice, not an expectation on the leadership to fix it for me by offering the ideal sequencing and availability. By that reasoning, when you get to high school would there be 2-4 different math or science tracks offered at the same time block for each grade level? While I understand that you are not thinking in terms of Junior/Senior years, they ARE high school students and could reasonably be expected to find an alternative to taking a class that doesn't fit their needs - and it would vary according to community- while you seem to have public transportation options, in our community that's not really an option but many Juniors and Seniors would be driving and able to find -somewhere- to go for, say, 1.5 hours between classes. For two particular co-ops near me, there is a coffee shop within walking distance (although on a high traffic road so I'd expect students to drive or catch a ride) and a library within a 5-10 minute drive. Another site has a coffee shop two doors down. But I understand that not all locations will be like that and I think that the options you mentioned are a very reasonable alternative and that I think co-ops who aren't trying to be all things to all people could reasonably be asked to consider providing. While colleges can offer each kind of course availability (enrichment to rigorous academic), they have a far larger student and teacher base than any co-op. I would think that a co-op serving high school students will really find it a challenge to be eclectic (e.g., PBL plus enrichment plus academic) and the co-op will do better to forge their identity and then let people participate or not as they choose.There is a very rigorous academic co-op in our area that I seriously considered but they require enrollment in the designated grade-level sequencing of courses for all students (and all students must enroll in all courses for their grade level). While much of what this co-op offers fits with my goals, because they lack flexibility for math/science sequencing and pacing I opted not to participate.

Phonetic Zoo?

If we don't switch to a B&M school, we'd be doing EW2 at WTMA with Kayla Meyers. We signed up with her for EW1 based on all the positive recommendations and the praise is merited.

LoriD I think your suggestions are great for fostering the outcomes OP and the other thread's OP are looking for. But it really saddens me that the parents should need this much hand-holding. Pen, IMO, I think that by high school age, the burden shouldn't be on the co-op to be all things to all people. It's not like parents should be using it for enrichment (child care?) for a junior or senior. The student can go to a coffee shop or the library in between classes if there's nothing offered during a class time block. Obviously I'm thinking more of a UM type model. Enrichment (and offering everyone an option for every time slot) strikes me as more of an Elementary obligation. But that's me. I have a generally low tolerance.

Following. Very intrigued by their stuff!

ok I'll look at Alcumus, didn't think about going outside of our current text/class. Will it help with the ACT? (DD just took that Saturday but might take it again next year...). Did the rumored changes to the SAT relate to this area at all or was it more the verbal area?

While DD and I may have been exposed to both ciphers and game theory, I couldn't tell you a definition or explain which was more appealing to her or me because I couldn't come up with sample problems for either one, just a vague sense. Would you mind too much saying a little more about these two categories, what a typical problem would look like, etc.. FWIW, DD is completing PreA 2 (online class) this month. She has also done most of Jousting Armadillos and TabletClass (don't ask...).

CC starts LTW in the Challenge levels (7th grade+).

Seconding RS Geometry although my understanding is that it is NoT a substitute Geometry course (which may be what you are wanting?). Also possibly Key To Geometry?

I've eyed these. Purpose truly is to keep it fresh, not re teach. https://www.analyticalgrammar.com/high-school-grammar

Any updates? This discussion really struck a chord with some things that I am wrestling with now. Even put some thoughts that I hadn't been able to articulate into words, like the perception of his social/school world being so "fragmented."