Hi, KnitWit (I feel bady calling you that! lol) I looked into Chalkdust primarily because of how awesome Dana Mosely's teaching is supposed to be but when I looked at who the teacher was for Algebra I, it wasn't Mr. Mosely but another guy. Do you have a set where Mr. Mosely is the teacher for Alg 1? Thanks, Cynthia

What a wonderful, refreshing, and delightful point of view. I need to print this off to remind myself of these things. Cynthia

I chose TT Pre-Alg (7th gr) because I'm not good at math and I didn't want to have to grade papers. We went to Art of Problem Solving (8th gr) and my dd13 would get frustrated often. I think it may have been because she couldn't 'beat the system'. I think she would put some answer in the box in TT, get in wrong, and just move on. She has now been forced to try harder since when you get an answer wrong in Alcumus (AoPS's online component) she would lose points and then have to do more problems. And as a mom you may smile when I tell you that when it got really bad, she just started writing the answer down when the solution was revealed after getting it wrong because she saw that the problems repeated themselves eventually. She then just typed in the right answer when that problem came around again and 'passed' because the program ran out of questions. When asked about a comparison between TT and AoPS she admitted that she just tried to get through the lessons in TT and didn't really understand. So I wanted to second what OneStepAtATime has said above. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do next-- if I have to be vigilant with using TT, that is me having to be involved more than I'd like and I am super involved in other subjects and need math to be independent. I don't think most children would be as sneaky as mine is, though. Cynthia

I'd love to hear also. Especially for high school math.

We just finished AoPS Pre-Algebra online for my 8th grader. I'm not good at math so we did the online option. Wow, it was a fast pace and a lot of work and the last class will be this Friday. So now I have to think about Alg 1 and 9th grade. I see you've gone all the way through Calc. How did you assign grades using AoPS for high school? Not knowing about the grading is one hurdle to continuing to use this but also dd13 is currently saying math is her least favorite subject. In the online class there were challenge problems sometimes she didn't know how to start and I didn't know how to help so we struggled along looking through the textbook until we found something to get us started. How did you use the textbook and/or alcumus in structured way for high school? Thanks for your feedback. I have a very bright child, but I'm not sure she is even remotely interested in a math/science career so I want to see how implementing AoPS (not online) would work for high school. I'm also trying to come to terms with what my responsibility is to her. I'm trying to consider the question that just because she can do the work in AoPS would it be okay to choose something less challenging if she dislikes it. I think she just dislikes having to work at something. Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated. Blessings, Cynthia

Derek, About what time of year is the sale? It seems like many sales are in the spring but it would be good to know how long I'd need to wait if I end up choosing TabletClass. Thanks, Cynthia

Bump. I'd love to hear more from folks who've used it. I'm considering it for dd's 9th grade year next year. Blessings, Cynthia

I have found the mistakes but not the corrections. I don't regret choosing the curriculum --my solution is to have my dd go through her notes/text and find proof of the right answer.

Okay, I did decide. And because I've just majorly bucked the tide of everything that was recommended, I feel I need to explain. I chose Visual Latin. Yup, the dorky guy who is the opposite of my type A personality. The First Form Latin, Latin Alive and Getting Started with Latin and Book One were all awesome, academic choices-- not a thing in the world could I find wrong with them, except my DD12 (who wanted to go ahead and start Latin early using the sample 7 lessons from Visual Latin) didn't laugh out loud and ask to do Latin with them. She had asked to do Latin over the summer with Visual Latin. What I am going to do is what Rainbow Resource suggests to make Visual Latin a full high school foreign language credit is to add Latina Lingua's Pars I. That's the short answer. For those who have time, here's the long answer. I wasn't thinking about adding a foreign language in 8th grade, initially, but then thought it would be good to get it out of the way while dd was taking easier classes. When asked which language she would like, dd wanted Latin because of Percy Jackson. When I asked her why she wanted to learn Latin she said that she wanted to read it. Ultimately, that's why I chose Visual Latin. I understand keenly that academically it makes more sense to front-end the study of grammar but if our goal isn't to take Latin exams but just to be able to read it, the curricula mentioned above are harder and more time-consuming than we need. Because of my type A personality, we schooled til 5 and 6pm last year as I tried to pack everything in and do 100% on everything, but now I see that I need to pick and choose and have a shorter day for things to soak in. I can't pick a teacher-intensive curricula for everything-- just like I don't want to pick a computer-based or DVD curricula for everything. Also, some subjects need to be college-prep and for my dd, we are needing to add a challenging math program this year. With Art of Problem Solving, she will have 90 min of math work each day. With Michael Clay Thompson's language arts plus IEW, she's going to have a lot of vocab and writing. Apologia's Physical Science is college prep science. Sonlight's history is all socratic method. So, when it came down to foreign language electives, I chose what DD liked, what made her laugh and what she asked to do over the summer. By the time we are on the 18th lesson, we'll add in her reading (not translating) the Latina Lingua and we will have accomplished what she asked to do. When I put it on her transcript, I won't have to specify which curricula I used, it will just say "Latin I, Latin II, etc." With MCT's vocab focusing on Latin stems and roots, I think she will have all the benefits she needs of Latin. Kind of a side point, I was required to take 3 semesters of Latin in college, I made 2 Bs and a C. I'm a stay at home mom who used to practice law, so obviously I made well enough on the LSAT to go to law school but the latin didn't really help me on the LSAT. And looking at FFLatin, Latin Alive, Henle, etc., I definitely do not remember any Latin sufficient to be able to teach it to DD. Soooooo, if it wasn't a big help to me on the LSAT and I don't remember much of it, if any, I figured I should have DD study it for the reasons she wanted to study it since it may not 'stick' in the long term anyway. Thank you so much for everyone's input. I read and thought about every point that was made. Visual Latin fit the bill because of my not having to teach it, DD liked it and I could add in the Latina Lingua (lesson plans are on the VL website) to make it challenging enough for high school credits. I was just going to slink quietly away after making my decision because folks on the WTM forums are so in favor of academic rigor and excellence that I was a little embarrassed to be taking what appears to be an easier road, but armom (see quote above) called me out on what my decision was so here it is. I'm not supermom and I can't have great academic rigor and hands-on teaching in every subject, so that's what swayed the final decision. :) Blessings, Cynthia

Angela, That's exactly the place I find myself-- I'll have an eighth grader who will be taking Latin for the first time in the fall and despite taking some college Latin, I don't remember any of it. What would you suggest instead? Thanks, Cynthia

I'd love to hear more from folks who have used this. :blush:

Thanks for the recommendation. We've done MCT's Grammar Town and Character Quality Language Arts Green Level B (for middle school) so we've definitely had the basics. That's good to know that the foundation needs to be in place with some curricula. Cynthia

We are just finishing up our first year of homeschooling and as I have been researching our Latin options for weeks now, I think I've read every post on Latin here and on the Sonlight forums, too. :willy_nilly: As I read on TWTM forums, we are years behind everyone who started when their children were very young. If anyone had a late start like us, what would you recommend for a child on the college prep path? We struggled to not have our school day go too long last year so I need something that isn't extremely time intensive. And I definitely will get any DVD that helps teach whatever curriculum we choose. I've looked at Latin Alive, but forgive me, the teacher seems unfriendly. I looked at Visual Latin and the teacher seems almost too 'loosey goosey'. I liked the First Form Latin teacher. I've read that we should be concentrating on learning grammar first, then translating. Basically, I've stuffed my head with a lot of knowledge, but I need wisdom. :confused1: What would a first time older student enjoy that is a solid program that has either a thorough teacher's manual or a DVD to teach it? Thanks for your help! Cynthia

In case people find this after searching for CQLA, I'm using it and found that the Training for Triumph folks have changed their name to "Character Ink" and they now have a Facebook page where I was able to ask some newbie questions because I've just started using it. Hope that helps!

We haven't gone through it yet, but in reading the first couple of chapters there was no mention of labs. My daughter needs to learn the basics so we're doing Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra and just using this as a supplement. There are some folks who use it as their whole math curricula.

I cannot vouch for how great it's going to be but I got Life of Fred's Elementary Physics for my 7th grader next year as a supplement to her regular math. People seem to love it or hate it. HTH

Pen, do you have favorite bins? Are they stackable and then you get out what you need for the week? Does the bin just provide a 'home' for the subject so you know where to go to get the things for that subject?

Erin, Because Buck and my daughter are so similar in age, could you share what you end up filling his with?

I am eating this up. Thanks so much. I hope folks will continue to chime in. Halcyon, how do you use "pro-click"? I saw that that was a binding system. Was that more for your stuff or your children?

As I read recent threads talking about school supplies, I wondered if you all who have taught middle school age had some go-to items you used this year. I see that folks have gotten a smaller binder to put just this week's lessons into or maybe a few weeks. I read that some put all the week's books into one basket/tub/plastic container so things are easy to find. But I'm curious what other 'supplies' have been most helpful to you this year as you taught a 'middle school' core. I was wondering about a date stamp-- since I'm just starting, no advice is too simple for me or item too basic. It would just be good to get a heads-up before I face a sea of possibilities in the office supply area. Thanks in advance.

I am brand new and will only just be starting to homeschool in the fall, but after a ton of research, I chose Sonlight's Core W and then I went and bought a bunch of supplemental LA stuff. I haven't even seen the IG yet as it is going to be shipped in May. What I wanted to share, though, is what I sensed God saying to me as I was beginning to despair in how I was going to put all these disparate parts together: I felt like He put the thought in my head that these things that I've bought are to serve me. I am the master, they are my servants. And that went along with something I read on a forum yesterday when I was researching homeschool planners. One mom (16 year HS veteran) used a spiral notebook where she just wrote what they did each day. That stopped me in my tracks: if I did that-- there would be no condemnation for not 'keeping up' with someone else's arbitrary schedule. What matters to me may not matter to them(the writers of lesson plans/schedules/etc.), so how could they leave room for ________________ in their core? I can, however, because I'm the boss. To me, it's the expectations we have of ourselves that is causing this bitterness and it comes from letting others dictate what we should be doing. I have struggled with this ever since making the decision to homeschool next year. You are the boss-- if you want to enjoy the beautiful books you can get through SL, just do what you can each day, choosing what you want, discarding what doesn't fit-- if it takes 2 years or more-- your children are still learning every single day and more importantly, you are nurturing their relationship with you and their relationship with God. I count that at a huge success and I can only hope that I will be able to say that a year from now.