It matters if you want to get any information out of the test for your own purposes: identifying relative strengths and weaknesses. I always have given above grade level just because I get irritated paying for a useless test. It just typically confirms what I already think I know - but gives me confidence in my instincts. Brownie

Not finding bravewriter to be nearly s advanced as it is billed. My 6th grader is doing the high school essay writing curriculum now. She wouldn't let him in the live class without backing up to the beginning of the high school curriculum so I bought it....well we are 3/4 through now and it is fine but as far as I am concerned, it is not a high school course. After using the 1st half of the course I decided I was not going to pay for the online version of the essay writing. It's not even a 7th grade essay writing course, as they haven't actually written an essay yet at all. Not that it isn't interesting...it's a somewhat different approach which I do appreciate because we've done so many things, and I get exhausted of making up my own assignments, but I would look carefully at the expectations before purchasing one of her products. DS' most recent assignment was to research movie reviews and then write one of his own. I want him writing literary essays and this curriculum has not delivered. Brownie

No suggestions for something he would truly love (though we have done chess, the competition math book available through AOPS, and other things), but I thought I would mention how we did things. I have an 8th grader, and I feel that algebra and pre-algebra are the foundation to success in the rest of math. My 6th grader is finishing up Algebra via forester now but I slow things down when we hit pre-algebra/algebra. Because there are so many different opinions out there on what constitutes each, we can spend a long time firming it up. First he did Saxon pre-alg. Then we got the Prentice Hall(?) pre-Algebra book and hit all the topics we had missed. Now while he takes a course using Forester, we are using the Prentice Hall Algebra books to extend any topics forester misses. He also spends about 1/2 an hour a day doing Math Counts or Competition Math problems. In the past I have also allowed him to spend a couple of months moving ahead on Khan Academy. I'm about to follow the same path with my 9 year old. He will start Saxon Pre-algebra next week and we also enrich with Math Olympiad problems, but when we finish, we will go through a more traditional, more challenging pre-algebra text we well.

In a similar position right now trying to decide what to do... I REALLY want my advanced 12 year old to take the Expository Essay class based on the description. I sent a sample and she said the writing was good but pushed me to take the Intermediate course instead because of his age and then follow it up with EE. Well I can hardly swallow paying the price for 1 of their online courses, and I was really hoping to do the online course to keep us/him on track and for the outside feedback, otherwise I would just buy the book for $80. I looked at her sample for intermediate and honestly I think I've done similar stuff with him already on my own. So now I'm confused... Brownie BTW did you know the books are 50% off at the homeschoolbuyers coop? I just might get Help for High School to do the Intermediate chapters and at least if I'm not impressed we won't do the essay course.

So far all I've been able to discern is that: it is a team of 4, registration in November, regional competition in February or thereabouts. People I know have practiced 1x a week, but why? (meaning because there is a team component or just to work problems) and starting when? after registration? How important is team practice, especially if you 're just looking to try it out / see if math competition is for you? Is there anything else I need to know? Thanks!

hmmm...we' re not doing a language yet but I am contemplating that option. He does play an instrument and the music usually comes with a cd. I may incorporate that in because we rarely listen to them but he does have rhythm issues (i.e. he loves to play as fast as possible) so it might help!

This school year we will be making a 1.5 hour round trip drive once a week to take my 11 year old to an activity. On the way there we will listen to SOTW2. On the way back, I would like something for just my 9 year old and I that is at least minimally interactive so we make the most of our alone time together. A regular (multi-hour) audio book won't work. We listen to audio books ALL THE TIME, and I find it tedious to keep track of which kid(s) are listening to which book so we only listen to books when all the kids are together. Plus, this is just once a week, so ideally whatever it is would only happen on that one day each week. It would be tough to maintain interest in a book if listening only 1x a week. Still, it could still be something on CD since I will be pulling out the SOTW2 CD anyhow. Any ideas? It would be nice if the time seemed somewhat special / enjoyable rather than a chore. He would gladly play on my tablet :( but then I wouldn't even know he existed in the back seat. Are there any age-appropriate memory work cd's? something we could discuss? I don't know... Thanks! Brownie

I don't know what your state law is but with a gifted IEP here, they are supposed to meet your kids needs. Our school mandates a math placement test over the summer for all incoming students from any situation, and for all current students who wish to skip a math class. DS took one last year...and although then it is inconvenient for everyone, requiring bussing to a different school, they are required to get him into an appropriate class. We turned down the option to bus and allowed him to re-take algebra in 7th which is common enough that it happens at his own school. ETA find out who the head of your math department is and place a phone call. I did that last year and had a conversation about our situation.

phew! Well she found it. Someone else had brought it in the house and had not told her. I'm just glad that's over with! Because yes I would be upset with a retailer, but on the other hand, if we refund people their money just bc they claim they didn't get something, even when we have proof, nobody would ever sell used stuff. That hurts us all! Brownie

It was "delivered" 9 days ago:( The tracking only shows the city and state so I guess I'm not sure how I can prove I got the address correct, nor can she prove I got it wrong. I would imagine the info is out there somewhere perhaps?

What would you do if you sold curriculum, the tracking number shows it was delivered priority through USPS, but the person claims they didn't get it? Split the price plus the shipping cost with them? I hate to mistrust someone and assume they are lying. I assume the tracking number must be 99% reliable, otherwise there would be no point. I almost wish the package would have been lost...I would have gotten the insurance money at least. eta: the item wasn't sold on here or I wouldn't be posting about it here :)

What about Shakespeare? I started reading Julius Caesar at 11 using a side-by-side modern english with the original. They are not much altered but it helps. DS hated Henty...slogged through it. I expected complaints when I handed him Julius Caesar but he read it in one day.

The error was in the firefox browser. When I tried Explorer I still got an error but it did post to the board. Brownie

I have tried over a dozen times over the course of 2 days. Every single time I attempt to post items for sale, it logs me out and tells me I need 1 post before accessing this feature. I have over 1000 posts. Brownie

We're doing the ferret study next year. I haven't purchased it yet, but will soon when I have time to dive in and plan!

I do think it makes sense to specialize. I do not know what this team does, but the A team did go to nationals. They had to take a 20 question multiple choice test to qualify because too many kids want to do it. So in that sense you cannot specialize until you are on the team!!! Which is totally silly because my son studied hundreds of actual science bowl questions and then I think they just made up questions for this quiz :( They did not seem representative of the kinds of questions in the actual bowl. Anyhow, after some digging, I did find this link with tons of references for studying: http://science.energy.gov/~/media/wdts/nsb/pdf/hs/pdf/strategies.pdf The books and websites they recommend are listed at the bottom...so at least it gives some options. Sadly a lot of it seems to be vocab versus understanding of science. But I always tell ds not to just memorize...you need to delve in and understand the topic if you hope to retain it long term. Brownie

Great - thanks! I will look into that app. Anything to add some variety. Brownie

Does anyone have suggestions for how to study for the National Science Bowl at the middle school level? (besides just studying the sample questions on their website). My public school student really wanted to do this last year. He studied over the summer, and then did not make the team. I saw the tryout test...it was really limited in scope...lame. Nonetheless he would like to study again this summer and try to make the team next year. There do not seem to be any books out there on the subject. Studying individual questions gets pretty old so we did try to delve in more deeply in areas that came up in questions where he had no background knowledge. Studying textbooks isn't particularly efficient. I'm not sure how else to approach this for variety. Thanks! Brownie

Oh I agree with you 8filltheheart. My question was more about what happens when you re-insert them into the system I guess. But everyone was having so much fun with the bigger question :)

I'm not trying to insult people by somehow saying your kids aren't as bright as you think they are. Yes, by homeschooling we have been able to work at the correct pace for ds...this has put him ahead of where he would be in ps and where he *should* be. But DS tested just run of the mill gifted in kindergarten, and while I don't put much stock in the accuracy of IQ tests from one day to the next, he is not pg. On the other hand, his Explore scores imply otherwise...I attribute that partly to homeschooling and partly to the imprecision of IQ testing. I am concerned, as Arcadia said, with his ability to cope at an accelerated math level when he goes back into school. Two issues: 1) non-personalized pacing...he is a perfectionist and gets frustrated when it's not easy, and 2) as homeschoolers we have the opportunity to go full steam ahead and say, "well if they hit a wall in 3 years, we will deal with that when it happens." But once you are on a math track at school, it's hard to stop! I really should put him in a class, if I can find an appropriate one, but I don't know if the money is available right now. So I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has seen this be a problem. He's totally ready to start Algebra (in some ways we've already begun). But I could contemplate a year of number theory or something. Brownie

and how much is your kid? My 5th grader finished pre-algebra 4 months ago. We've been filling in gaps, doing competition math, reviewing, etc...since then. I have to make a decision about the track to put him on because he is going back to school eventually. He scored 96%ile on the 8th grade Stanford this year. So based on those 2 items, he should be more than ready for algebra. But I worry in a real classroom he couldn't handle the pace and volume of work. I ask no more than 1hr10min of math from him on any day. I help when he's confused, I hurry ahead when he finds it easy... Maybe individual tutoring is different. Has anyone ever placed their kid in a live math class, only to find out they weren't quite ready for what you thought they were ready for?

You'll likely have to go through their official accommodation process. It will mean getting a doctor's signature, etc...the same as if you were taking the SAT or ACT. It's kind of a pain but if you need it, you need it so get the paperwork early. Brownie

My kids are ahead doing an hour a day because we rarely do IP or CWP. We hardly even touch the text for certain levels. My kids are strong in math so we just keep forging ahead, and if we need to revisit concepts, I use unused text problems, or buy a supplementary book, or print my own problems online. Sometimes we do enrichment topics...chess, LOF, etc...But really...this only works because my kids are really naturally strong in math. Regardess of how many problems they did and whether they worked all year round, they could not accelerate if they were not ready for it. My 3rd grader has just begun 5A, but we had to go back and do every level 4 textbook problem and then some after finishing the workbook. Plus I bought the Harcourt level 4 workbook which runs a similar scope for review. We are maybe 1/2 way through that. We're doing Khan Academy grade 4 mission math as a review too. We're just starting 5A because the 1st chapter or 2 are easy, but if some maturity doesn't kick in over the summer, we will be trying something else for awhile next year. He just can't remember the math "vocabulary" and he can always do a problem...once I show him. But it's not sticking in his memory. While he is ready to understand 5th grade math, he is not really ready to do it without me at his elbow. I can try to strengthen his weakpoints, but that's about it.

Ouch! Okay - 1 hour a week for questions and mapwork. That leaves lots of time for other stuff. Brownie

How much time would you say the mapwork and questions required each week? I will probably see the activities as busy work too :) I think I just need to go buy the book, but I would like to know how much time to expect for planning purposes. I am now thinking I want him to spend maybe 2hrs a week on this, some time for outside reading like National Geographic, and 30+ minutes to study the info. Brownie