Yes. I discovered it on YouTube awhile back when it showed up in my recommended list. Very odd movie. I'd give it 3 stars because there were parts that were just a little too out there for my tastes.

Has he had a formal Algebra course? Or Geometry? If you were to hs him next year, I would look into having him take some sort of placement test to figure out where is on the secondary math scale. Math should be the primary focus for the next couple of years. Personally (and only if this is feasible for you and won't take away much time from your other kids), I would look into finding a very rigorous math curriculum with an online component that he can do on his own. Perhaps something that would take him through 3-4 years of secondary level math in 2 years? I would ask around on the high school and accelerated learners boards to see if anyone knows of such a curriculum and would focus my budget on making it happen. Why? Math will be the thing that will hold him back and keep him from pursuing his interests in physics and astronomy at a young age. If he doesn't have the appropriate background in Algebra, Geometry, Trig and Calc, it will be difficult for him to get into more advanced areas of scientific study as he gets older. Plus math is important anyway. He'll need at least 3 credits to graduate high school and 4-5 if he plans on attending college. If you are looking at competitive colleges, you'll probably want to plan for at least 1 year of calc before graduation, preferably 2 years. So yeah, I'd focus on math for now. I'd also have him read lots of physics, astronomy and chemistry books, as well as lots of free reading in science fiction, history and non-fiction essays, philosophy and poetry. Why? Because those things will spur creativity and unlock doors in the mind. I came across this passage while researching Isaac Newton. It stuck with me and pretty much sums up why I think you would do well to focus on math and why axillary reading is important for STEM types. Basically, Sir Newton bought a book as a young man and couldn't understand some of the illustrations due to not having studied certain topics in math...so he bought another book on math and learned it so he could disprove the foolishness in the first book! :p Isaac Newton was also a Biblical scholar of sorts, obsessed with uncovering hidden patterns in the text. Einstein read Goethe, Kant and Nietzsche. Check out this list of FREE books that Neil deGrasse Tyson recommends that every person read. NdGT is one of the leading scientists of our time, so perhaps that is someone your son would know and look up to in a way. If your son insists that you direct his education with an iron fist, well, that's not healthy. He's old enough to learn some self-regulation and needs to be able to handle some things on his own. However, you can kick things up a notch for next year IF he is capable of working independently. I would stress that to him. If he wants to be able to pursue his interests in hard science and math, then he must show that he is capable of managing his time and pursuing worthwhile things in his spare time. No complaining, no whining, no dwaddling and he must be productive and proactive in ALL areas of study. Perhaps you should consider starting him off in a high school level physics course using Conceptual Physics as a spine? CP has problem solving and practice workbooks to go along with it, which I'd consider purchasing as well. Watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos (check to see if your local library has a copy on DVD) and/or reading the book may also appeal to him. "Death by Black Hole" is a collection of essays by the aforementioned Neil deGrasse Tyson. It is a very nice sampling of astrophysics for the armchair scientist or enthusiast and would probably provide some good prompts for essays or other writing exercises. One last thing I would suggest is teaching some sort of foreign language. Latin can be rigorous and some STEM types find translating exercises and memorizing vocab to be very mathematical. Greek may prove to be of interest due to the use of Greek symbols in higher level mathematics. Also, many great foundational works of science and mathematics were written in both Latin and Greek, so knowing one or both would allow him to study them in their original forms. Asian languages can also be very appealing to the STEM mind. DH is amateur language enthusiast, as well as big tech geek/STEM-head. He is currently attempting to teach himself Chinese....*shakes head* Science Olympiad may be a possible elective for him. I don't know a whole lot about it, other than I did it for 2 years in high school. It is a team thing and tied to high schools, usually, although they do have a middle grade division. There may be a team at his current school or perhaps there is something similar for homeschool kids that I am unaware of. Hope this helps. :)

I recommended it as an alternative IF symbol confusion is happening. Obviously, one should use the pi key or the actual number within as many digits as is reasonable whenever possible. 3.14159 would be a reasonable alternative in most cases, but may be a bit much for some to remember. 22/7 is another common approximation. 3.14285714286 would be the answer in that case, which is definitely a lot of numbers to pull out of thin air unless you have a talent for remembering long strings of numbers. In most cases, students will have access to a calculator or google and can do the math with the press of a few keys, but if you are teaching/encouraging mental mathematics or written step-by-step work, 3.14 or 22/7 are reasonable substitutions for pi at the pre-algebra level, imho. I am with you when it comes to not teaching bad habits that will have to be untaught later. I have done a lot of this over the years due to my high school using some sort of pilot math curriculum that combined algebra, geometry and trig into supposed "spiraled units" and had us writing math essays and other random things. *shakes head* I think that in this case, it may be prudent to eliminate as many variables as possible to determine where exactly the OP's daughter is getting stuck, lost, or confused. That is why I suggested subbing 3.14 for pi, to determine if it is the pi symbol causing her to "forget" about /2 in the problem or if it is just her rushing through the assignment.

Watch for falling vases.... Anyway.... I would recommend reading "Do Hard Things" and "Start Here". They are by the same authors, very motivated homeschooled teenage brothers named Brett and Alex. I read them some years ago at the suggestion of a friend while going through some serious depression. They advocate teens and tween pursuing things that they are passionate about and using that passion to do big/hard things for God, their families, their communities, etc. I also recommend doing something creative. Learn to play an instrument. Build a Tardis. Start playing a new board game (Settlers of Catan, anyone? How about HeroClix?) Write some poetry or short stories. Take a NaNoWriMo Challenge (they have some especially for teens and genre-specific ones for all ages throughout the year.) And epic challenges like Milwordy (million words in a year) for the word nerds of the world. Take up a new sport or hobby. Btw, there are two points in life: A (birth) and B (death). It's pattern of your line inbetween the two that matters the most. Sure, you can take a direct route and that's one way to get there, but the more twists, turns, hills, bumps, breaks, and meanderings, the more interesting the graphic, imo. ;)

Well that is quite problematic....:P

Seems like she is getting hung up on details. It might help to make up a few worksheets where you order the problems like so: Row 1: single digit multiplication Row 2: double digit multiplication Row 3: triple digit multiplication...so on. Maybe this would show her that the same principles apply in all cases and that she can do any type of multiplication problem if she can do singles. That may boost her confidence a bit. I would also consider having her do worksheets or workbooks with the problems printed and enough space to work them in to eliminate the need for her to copy the problems herself. Perhaps this is causing some anxiety over her not getting them right or "what if I miss an important thing?" etc. My oldest has some anxiety in this area and it takes him FOREVER to copy his problems to his exact perfection, lol. I rarely have him write problems out anymore and when we do, he writes them on a dry erase board directly in front of me so I can jump in and cut down on the number of re-writes and miscopies. That triangle problem may be easier for her you teach it a bit differently. Instead of having her divide by 2, try having her multiply by 0.5. or 1/2. I would also start subbing 3.14 for pi in most problems to cut down on symbol confusion. Basically, try to distill each calculation in as few steps as possible. Stick with the basic 3 (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication) as much as possible and really hammer those skills down to the nth degree. It sounds like she may have some division issues. 5/0 is not a logical problem to begin with, so I don't see how that would even be an option. Maybe I misread the explanation? I'd have to see the actual problem to see what the authors were getting at there. Also, I suggest that you and her read Danica McKellar's books, particularly "Kiss My Math". It is a girl-friendly approach to common pre-algebra problems. She has some other books too, but that is the only one I have read. They may make good supplements for the struggling math-girl. It seems like I mention her books often 'round here. Those are just my suggestions. They may or may not work. She sounds like a bright kid who is just having some math-related brain farts on occasion. Saxon is kind of dry, imo and perhaps you should look into switching to a more interesting and interactive curriculum next year.

If X = -3, then the absolute value of X = 3. 3 - 24 = -21 (the absolute value of which is 21.) -3 + 24 = 21 (checks out on both counts) When you do the last steps: 9 - (9 x 1/9) - 4 - 3 + 3^0 The 3^0 becomes 1 because anything to the zero power is 1, correct? So the problem looks like this: 9 - (9 x 1/9) - 4 - 3 + 1 9 - 1 - 4 - 3 + 1 8 - 4 - 3 +1 4 - 3 + 1 1 + 1 2 (Checks out with the correct answer given above according to your solutions manual.) Mathematical! :D But then again, the whole thing could be a rabbit hole...it's been awhile since I did a problem like this. The bird may be rusty.

candmforever, can you post example(s) of the sort of problem(s) she is getting wrong? Maybe there is a step that she is continually skipping or a glitch somewhere in her understanding of the mechanics of the problems? It could be careless mistakes or it could be something that she doesn't get in the moment. Then she takes a step back and is like "doh! I can't believe I missed that!" The wise thing to do would be to slow her down somehow. My DD (only 7) often rushes through her math exercises and untimed drills and will make silly mistakes like leaving numbers out or reversing the answer ie 21 instead of 12 and things like that. I started having her do some work verbally and I also started making her explain things to me as she does them. Often she catches her mistakes when we do this and will self-correct. Other times, her older brother will catch her mistakes and correct them for her. (Not always a good thing.) At any rate, she realized that she is making mistakes and it helps her to slow down and focus on the steps.

Here is a link to an older edition of the books. 3.5 stars. Not sure I'd buy it. *shrug*

I would recommend some graphic novels that are based on/adaptations of actual books. Here are few that you might consider: Coraline the graphic novel (has a girl protagonist, is kind of spooky and is a real page turner.) The Lightning Thief (Most of the series has been turned into graphic novels) The City of Ember (This is a good book. :D) Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (A story about a girl growing up in Iran. Very beautiful art and a lovely way to learn about Iranian culture and history) Otherwise, go for a few short (but not light!) reads such as: Bridge to Terabithia Tuck Everlasting The Westing Game The Book of Three (the first book in the Prydain Chronicles, a fantastic series...) An Elephant in the Garden (fantastic story about a family that rescues an elephant during war times.) All of these are about 200 pages long and very engaging stories, imho. Hope this helps. :)

I use Wrap-Ups and Kumon workbooks for my supplements and drills. Wrap-Ups can also be used for drilling purposes, but my kids enjoy them too much for me to call them drills. We also do one minute written math drills. She likes that sort of thing though. Especially when I let her use the abacus. ;) We also do a lot of verbal drilling. She knows her addition and subtraction facts pretty solidly now, and even has her multiplication tables down through the 10's thanks to listening to her older brother do his drills aloud.

I have played these types of games with mine. I call it the "Problem of the Day". I use a cottage cheese container and I put a certain amount of treats (Teddy Grahams or pretzels usually) in it. On the lid, I write the problem and leave the kids to figure out two things: A) How many treats are inside? B) How will they split them evenly? They have used lots of different methods to figure it out over the past year or so I have been doing this. DS1 will do the equations like I showed above and then he will divide them by 2 or 3 and be like "I'm done!" Ex. X - 74 = 150 +74 +74 X = 224 224 = 112 <<< That's how many he and his sister would each get. Sometimes I tell them to share with their brother and /3. 2 DD is more creative with her approaches. She can do the equation method, but only up about 20. Numbers larger than that overwhelm her right now. So she has done everything from write the numbers and circle or cross them out, to spending several minutes playing with her abacus, to guessitimating. One of her methods is to do this: 70 4 74 +150 = 224 Basically, she is using place value to solve the problem. Once she gets the first half of the problem, she will ponder the division carefully. We haven't done a lot of division drills, so it takes her awhile most of the time. She would divide each number by 2 like this to get the answer: 2 2 4 2 2 2 1 1 2 <<<Correct answer. ********* That is a more complex sort of problem though. For the original problem, I would still say that balancing the equation is the most straightforward way to teach it. However, if you have gone over the concept multiple times, used manipulatives and it still isn't clicking, move on. If he can do problems like 5 - X = 2 and 5 - 2 = 3, he is competent and progressing as he should through 1st-2nd grade mathematics, imho. :) .

Yay! It's link-thirty! Seriously, I am totally going through that pinterest link this weekend. Also going to update the Epic Listing with some more music links and a few other things that have occurred to me recently....

The Rizers!!! I linked to some of their videos on YouTube in my epic link list...Here is a direct link to the post. Scroll down, post 2, under "The Rizers". Beneath that is a section called "Scripture Memory Songs" with links to a few Seeds Family Worship songs. I like SFW, but my kids don't enjoy them as much as they do The Rizers. The Rizers are more...upbeat, dance-y pop, I guess. All good stuff. PS -- Has anyone heard Galatians 5:22-3 set to the tune of the alphabet song? I searched high and low for that one on YouTube and can't find it anywhere. My 5yo LOVED that song when they sang it in preschool last year.

This happens sometimes with my kiddos. DS1 is a spectrum kid and doesn't like reading. It takes a lot of get him through a day of work and honestly, I believe that both of his younger siblings who are currently doing school will surpass him in English and reading within the next 2-3 years. I am not planning on working past the logic stage with him anyway, so I am not getting worked up about it yet. He does get angry when his younger sister finishes her reading or penmanship assignments before he finishes his. He also gets mad when she "beats" him in spelling or math drills. Right now, they are on the same level and using the same curriculum in everything except math. He is about a year ahead of his sister in math due to 3 years of public schooling and a natural inclination for math. He likes math, so he is willing to practice and doesn't get as bent out of shape about math as he does other subjects. He excels at music. He learned piano, bass and drums by teaching himself through YouTube videos and attending informal lessons/jam sessions with a friend who was involved with the worship band at our old church. His is gifted musically and recently began taking formal lessons at a studio. His instructor is wonderful and he is picking things up like a sponge. :) His true passion is the guitar. He spends a lot of time playing the guitar and watching videos on YouTube of people playing the guitar. And listening to his favorite bands (prog rock and technical metal mostly). He has always had a gift for music, even before he could really talk. He didn't talk until he was almost 6 and this was after 4 years of intensive speech therapy and 2 years of year-round schooling! He picked up on the beats and notes, hummed and tapped his fingers constantly and loved listening to music from the time he was old enough to realize what it was. His siblings do not have this gift. DD is very good at video games and likes to do physical things (dance, taekwondo). DS2 likes to build things and has a memory for stories. So they are each unique and I am sure that the little ones will show their strengths as time passes. I work with DS1 more than I do the others. I encourage him to do his best and that's all that I can do. Life is not fair and there will be struggles to face. So yes, I would suggest finding something that your daughter is passionate about and encouraging her to pursue it to the fullest. I would also consider spending some extra time with her in the evenings or on the weekends, just to talk and to explore her world with her. I never knew that my son liked Rush or wanted to read Frankenstein until DH and I traded off bedtime responsibilities and I started spending 20-30 minutes alone with him each night. We have some good conversations and I have learned a lot about his take on the world. ;)

Eh, originally that is what the OP was talking about, "how I should I teach my son this concept?". I disagree with the notion of splitting hairs and conceptualizing mathematics in general. That is me though, technically minded me. ;) There are two main reasons for my attitude/philosophy towards math. I have 2 children who are very technical, math-minded types. Like myself, basically. There was never a real need (and hasn't been so far) for me to do the whole "touchy-feely, let's count rods and blocks and visualize this problem 10 different ways!" thing. My oldest stresses out horribly whenever I try to do those types of activities with him. So I have given up that ghost. I like math and I like teaching it. It is also very important to DH and I that our kids like and understand math. There is room for many approaches when it comes to teaching grammar and logic level maths. None is perfect and most are highly imperfect, hence the need for supplementation and discussions like this one. ;)

I'd go for Little House on the Prairie and Farmer Boy. I will probably do LHP as an audiobook for kids during quiet time or history lessons and Farmer Boy as a readaloud during storytime or a bedtime story for my older two kids. I share your opinions on not liking the series. It's ok, but it's not something I'm dying to read with my kids. Probably because they are not into this sort of stuff at all and neither am I. Now maybe if Carrie was blinded by poisonous gas from an exploding alien aircraft on some farflung planet after the family crash landed in another universe, we'd care...but as if, nope, not interested. :P

You could forgo the study of physics if this is an area that she is not really drawn to. It would be a shame (imho) but realistically, not all of us are interested in the deeper understandings of why and how. You could do a second year of Biology or Chemistry if that is more appealing. Or you could do something like Zoology, Marine Biology, Meteorology, Geology, Robotics or a science-themed independent study course. Check out some course catalogs of competitive private high schools, good community colleges, and small universities and see what's out there. You can design your own course to suit her interests and needs. Even the more competitive schools generally do not have a requirement for physics. They merely require 3-4 years of upper level sciences (the -ologies w/labs and maybe an independent study or work-experience science course). Then again, if this is really about having a well-rounded education, then physics would be necessary, I suppose. I don't have any textbook or program suggestions. I will bookmark this post and come back when I have a clear head and time to go through my and DH's nerdtastic science library. He's a big physics geek and maybe he will have some recommendations for good intro to physics books that aren't textbooks. :)

I suppose I have a different understanding of mathematics than some. The way I teach it is probably different as well. Why is it important to hammer the concepts of parts and wholes into kids' brains? Where did the concepts come from anyway? It's almost as if someone somewhere was in denial about children having functional brains. Like this person couldn't possibly believe that a small child would be able deduce that you stole a chicken nugget from their plate, or understand the concept of needing the last piece to finish their puzzle. This is fairly intuitive stuff. Anybody who has ever decided to swipe the last of piece of your kid's cookie has found out the hard way that they understand the concept of parts and wholes on a basic level. It is the splitting of a whole (1) into smaller parts (1/4, 1/2, 1/10, etc) that confuses most kids NOT the concept of having 6 ponies after your little brother swiped 4 of them . I view math as being methodological and procedural. It is a lot like language, imo. Except for math demands that you learn the grammar, the rules, before you can form the syntax and express yourself in the language. Holding a mathematical conversation is something that requires serious study. Most of us don't go beyond learning to form basic arguments (proofs) in the language of mathematics. I think that children are capable of understanding the rules and procedures of mathematics in most cases. We're not talking about quadratic functions here. Just simple solving for X/unknowns. For me and mine, using manipulatives to solve these kinds of problems has never really proved to be fruitful. They either get it or they don't and the easiest way for them to get it is to stick to the numbers. Or I can drill them until they just "know" the answers. I prefer the former, but sometimes we will do the latter. It just depends on how things are going on that particular day or how well they are processing the concepts. It is getting late. Brain station is powering down, lol. I love math discussions.... :D

Don't fear the algebra! It's..... ************* Silliness aside, what's so bad about balancing an equation? It's essentially the same thing as adding the parts to get the whole. You are just teaching him to do the operation to both sides. I believe that teaching a child to repeat the operation on both sides is a good thing that eliminates confusion later on. Addition problems may trip him later and that's when this sort of thing comes in handy. Ex. X + 2 = 8 - 2 -2 X = 6 You can't just tell your kid to add the parts to get the whole here. There has to be an underlying reason, a methodology for obtaining the answer. Sure, you can always skip the balancing step and just say "subtract 2 from 8" or something to that effect, but that sort of explanation does not really explain the reason WHY you must subtract 2 from 8. I'm not an engineer. I merely enjoy mathematics and believe that a firm understanding of mathematics is a vital and often overlooked area of our educations. I have never used Miquon. Too many manipulatives for my tastes and I know that it would overwhelm my kiddos. We use the abacus, the soroban, wrap ups and number cards/charts and that's about it. I focus on mental math with mine a lot too and they are basically human shaped calculators at this point, lol. Good luck on your quest to introduce math to your son. I hope that you can find the right combination of curriculum to help him discover the joy of mathematics. :)

I thought of a few more books as I was going through DS1's old reading lists.. Sugar Creek Gang (Very Christian version of The Hardy Boys. DS1 received a set through a homeschool book exchange at our old church. We tried book 1 last year and he wasn't so fond of it. Thinking of trying again next year as a storytime thing to see if it appeals to him now that he's a bit older.) The Fairyland series (Everyone liked this. We did it as a storytime story over the summer. Our library doesn't have the newer books in this series yet. :() Time Cat (We read this last year along with SotW 1. DS1 and DD both loved it and asked to read it again.) The Golden Compass (This is a lovely book, one of my favorites of all-time. A bit heavy for younger kids, imo, but such a lovely story. It is the first book in the "His Dark Materials" series. The other two are not as good and should probably be saved for later, as they deal with some adult stuff.)

Well, we also have about 2 inches of ice under the foot-ish of snow we got yesterday. This is record breaking snow for us here in the lower plains. *shrug*

My oldest is in 4th grade for math at the moment and is probably more like 5th or 6th in terms of his actual ability. He has a LD though and is on the spectrum, so we work slowly and he enjoys the repetition of drills much more than most. My DD is 7 and in 2nd grade. She likes math and we focus on it a lot. She is probably a bit ahead for her age, but concepts like mean and mode would go straight over her head at this point. I agree with most of the other posters that the expectation of a 7-8yo doing these sorts of problems is strange and misplaced. These sorts of calculations are best left until a child is older and has more practical experience with fundamental concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Here is how I would do this problem. Thing is, I don't know if this would translate to a child. Maybe to mine since they are used to my ways, but perhaps not to yours. Data Set 1: 14, 10, 10, 13, 16. I would have my students write the list vertically and place lines between each one: 14 10 10 13 16 What is the smallest number? 10. What is the biggest number? 16. 16 - 10 = 6. <<<This is the range. How many numbers are there in the list? 5. Add the numbers together. You get 63. Now, divide 63 by 5. The answer is 12.6. Since the number after the decimal is 5, we round it up and we get: 13. <<<This is the median. This is also the average. My kids know about averages, so I would just tell them to "find the average of the numbers in the list". Much easier, imo. Which number appears the most in this set? 10. <<< This is the mode. Honestly though, these concepts are probably a bit much for her, expressed as is. It is a lot of work for a child to determine the range of numbers, then find the average, then the mode. If you use a number line, this may help with range operations. Determine the biggest number. Then find the smallest number. Cover up that number and count the remaining spaces. There is your range. With averages, it will always be about practice, practice, practice. Addition. Subtraction. Multiplication. Division. Or you can do the buddy up thing mentioned above. This will only work when you have an odd number of variables/numbers. In the example above, there are 5 numbers in the set, so buddying up works. If there were 4 or 6 numbers in the set, buddying up would not work and the student would have to devise another method (averaging) to figure the problem out. That's why I would skip teaching the buddying up method altogether. It's a great shortcut in some situations but it doesn't always work. So I'd do the extra work of averaging now and teach the cool shortcut later once my kids understood how it works. Really, these problems are intended to gauge how a child processes information and to teach them how deal with data and sets of numbers. Some children pick up on these things really quickly and others do not. The more familiar a child is with the operations above, especially multiplication and division, the easier these sorts of problems tend to be, imo.

Maybe you should try reading some history books? Stuff like Horrible Histories or biographies or autobiographies of important figures may be appealing to her. Or perhaps some of the more boring (imo) science fiction like Asimov or Heinlein may be her thing.