Do you mean EXPLORE? She did that and missed that cutoff by a couple of points too. I think it may not have been her best, we didn't really prepare AT ALL, like - I pulled out the envelope the night before the test - after she was in bed. DOH! She is scheduled to take the ACT in February, as well. I wish there was a way to semi-accurately predict her ACT from her EXPLORE performance... Another thought just occurred to me - her highest score on the WISC was on the Perceptual Reasoning Index, I'm realizing this might not translate as well to standardized (verbal-language-based) testing. Duh! (Although she has always tested very highly on -grade-based-level testing, of course!!!!)

This has been on and off my radar for years but I'm back thinking about it again and it appears that the admissions criteria has changed? Is my assumption correct that if DD has the test scores, those should be sufficient for admission without supplementary material? She was within 2 points on the WISC, with possible ceiling effects on two of the subtests within that Index. I have asked the psychologist for additional information about those scores. However, the test is over two years old so we would need to retest anyway before we submit...but...$$$.

Gods design for... Series covers this age range

I bought it off of Homeschoolclassifieds.com if I remember correctly. I just looked and there is a listing up dated 8/13. I also spent some time on their website and while it looks dated, there is a contact email and phone number so you could contact them directly. http://www.verticalphonics.com

We recently started CLE and decided to skip the spelling for my natural spellers because it was too elementary for them and use Phonetic Zoo instead.

Following.

As far as class times being an issue, iirc there was a course offered through the WTM academy using the AoPS text.

Those are great ideas Arcadia, thank you. I will keep (re)directing her attention to the worked solutions. Things are continuing to go well and I am eyeing registration for the upcoming sessions. We still aren't working ahead prior to each class like I'd like but since a fair amount of the content is review for her (from skipping around between other Pre-Alg curriculum), her understanding isn't being hindered. Alcumus still happens pretty independently, and 50% or more of the challenge problems are as well, but often not on the first attempt. The written problem generally requires my assistance either with prompting towards the solution and/or scaffolding the writing. However, as I have reduced my assistance her scores have generally stayed the same or improved so I think she's getting a handle on it. I think it will be a long-term intervention to think in proofs (which I can do, but I sometimes have a hard time figuring out how to get her there since it seems kind of obvious to me... ;) ).

No responses, would it be better to post this in the high school forum? This just seemed relatively AL-specific. Maybe no-one does any kind of prep? Uh, oops!

Actually, we are going to do Early Modern since I'm going to go ahead and loop with older DD's history cycle. I actually have a few hand-me-down continent boxes I got from another mama who was downsizing. So I already have them but they seem to have a lot of contemporary stuff (brochures, coins) that doesn't sync as well with -history- (especially ancient to early modern), so I'm sitting here looking at it, going, hm....how do I -integrate- this into the SOTW history which also appears to contain brief country overviews and map work. IDK that I'm looking to ADD something else otherwise (although the SCM looks really really well laid out and I probably would buy it if I were looking to do so!). It might even be that I'm asking the general sort of "how do you use continent boxes" question more than how do you do continent/geography study in SOTW. ;)

I'm specifically thinking of the continent boxes but any other opinions or suggestions on the use of Montessori-related materials would be helpful! We come from a Montessori background (as students) but implementation often eludes me. Wish I had the time for teacher training....but I don't. And I want to cycle through SOTW with my 2nd grader now that I've pulled her home from her Montessori school (that was a tough choice).

Scored a bunch of items at 2nd & Charles today. Yes! Might have been easier to find more but all children's nonfiction was shelved together. By author. :banghead: Except science. Which was separate but I could tell no other organizational system....

The library presents problems for us both in terms of laziness and fines! Yeesh. I'd be better off purchasing just a few. 1 or 2 books per chapter is a LOT but not as much as I feared. I went digging and found your list - what reading level/age where those for? Some of those look a little old for my rising 2nd grader (who IS a strong reader but perhaps not at 4th-5th grade level!).

This will be DD7's first year homeschooling. We are doing Y3 to align with DD12's history cycle. I'm looking at the AG's supplementary reading suggestions and wondering what that looks like for y'all. If you have links, I'm glad to read them but couldn't find pertinent threads in my search. Specifically, I'm wondering about how many of these geographical/cultural books you purchased or used. Compared to Y1 which seems to be mostly about Egypt, Greece, and Rome (which I've already covered AND which I find inherently fascinating), I have SO FEW books pertaining to the subject matter recommended (e.g., Scotland, Amazon, Aztecs/Incas, Great Plague, Peter the Great, Holland, Turkey/Ottoman, Vienna, Korea/Vietnam, France/Bastille/Napoleon...). I -DO- have plenty of colonial and early North American books. So per chapter, approximately how many "extra" books? Did you only buy those that you expected them to get to? Or did you run and pick up a bunch at the library and let them read whatever seemed relevant? And if they got to none (or didn't like any of them), that was fine too?

DD12 qualified to take the ACT this coming year. Based on her Explore results, I am thinking she'll do fine on the core subjects with zero prep (she had none for the explore), but some of her other scores, including science, weren't what I would have expected, especially for a science loving kid, although she generally does NOT free-read in science much at all, more logic and mystery and sometimes fun math. I could be up for integrating some prep materials into our morning time (I have seen Marie's Words recommended many times and I think both DD12 and 7 would LOVE it). If it would be helpful to know her scores to make recommendations, I'd be happy to post them... I'm not invested in putting a lot of time in to get some kind of stellar scores (although she might be in the range of possibly qualifying for DYS if we actually put some effort into it?), but why not put a little bit of effort towards helping her prepare for some of the content since we are outside of the PS scope and sequence (which I think was part of what hurt her on science?).

The copywork was easy for her. She could NOT repeat the dictation orally correctly to save her life! It dragged on...and on....and on...and then the tears were flowing... HOWEVER, an update to say that we tried it again today at her request (I was pulling out another source, the FLL 1&2 book haha), and she mastered it with much more grace and ease today. Interesting point - that pause to signify the comma? (you're supposed to wait like 3 seconds?) - I think that was totally throwing her off and distracting her. She might get used to it later in the game, but she did better today when I quit the artificial pause. And she still inserted the comma in the correct place. She forgot the end punctuation but THAT's the kind of thing I expect her to not do perfectly. But it seemed unwise to continue when she couldn't even repeat back the dictation....

<3 you Lori D.! Thank you for posting! I also saw the blog is coming up! Maybe we can coax them into posting on that there as well!!

We've started WWE2 and are having tears over the dictation.....suggestions? The first sentence of approx 12 words was easy peasy. But the second one contained awkward/old-fashioned language that DD kept (I think unconsciously) editing to sound more "right" and when she could get the independent clause down 100% correct, she couldn't recall the adjectival clause any more. I tried lots of scaffolding and support and she just couldn't seem to do it. This sort of problem was what had me wondering if we ought to back up in the FLL 1&2 book for a little more "experience" (she has none with narration or dictation) before plowing ahead with WWE2. Just at an accelerated pace perhaps. Edit: Just looked at day 3's exercise. I think she could probably do it (although needing more than 2 repetitions, I'm sure).

Update: I ordered D, 1st Edition. It should be here end of this week or beginning of next. I think DD will love it. Older DD found my Math Card Games book and decided to try and tutor DD7 and DD4 with it. LOL.

Maybe I can try checking them out from the library but that's like 8-9 books over as many weeks and I suspect somewhere there will be a library fail (aka fine) in all that!

Thank you so much for all the advice! This was SUPER helpful. I have a friend who told me that she works at a firm with a bunch of civil engineers so we could probably make an IRL connection there at some point. I take your suggestions very much to heart, 8, but I have to tell you that when I sat down to go over the information I gained from this thread, DD was squirmy and looking bored by the end...I'm not sure she's ready to dig THAT deep on career choices. :)

Thanks for all of the advice! Sounds like I have a plan - I'm going to use WWE 2. I'm just now a little more confident about it being the right choice :). I don't want to have to generate my own game plan so I'd rather use it than the hardback book. We can just slow things down if necessary. But she should be fine!

I was referring to threads like this http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/417328-diff-between-older-first-language-lessons-and-newer/?hl=fll+combined+wwe#entry4222556 that say that the OLD original book that combined FLL years 1&2 also preceded WWE (and contained all four strands of: memory work, copywork & dictation, narration (picture AND story), and grammar). So people who were using it (as an alternative to the newer FLL) along with the newer WWE, were cutting out the writing. I was thinking of doing the opposite and cutting out most of the grammar portion (redundant with CLE) and keeping the writing (as an alternative to using WWE).