Link please? I have looked at the first several pages of the Gen Ed board and I can't find it!!!

Can you take maybe 75% of an adult dose of Allegra? Drink lots of warm water too to help you clear/sooth your throat. I can't do nasal sprays/eye drops because it freaks me out, so that fact colors my suggestion.

Now that I think about it, neither biology nor chemistry were particularly math-heavy from what I remember. I think a good introduction to biology and chemistry should work just fine to get started. Perhaps you can look for a quality, for-non-majors Biology and/or Chemistry college text. Beware that the reading level on college books outside of the major range widely from highly accessible (6th grade level) to ridiculous, even for a college freshman* so you have to preview the books for sure. Do you have a used book store in your area, I would go and check out what they have to get a feel of what might best serve your purposes. I have found the Cathy Duffy site to be very useful for finding out about stuff that I need but dont know exists, here is her science page. My boys really enjoy the highschool and college level supplements so maybe look into For Dummies, Complete Idiots Guide, etc for the sciences for something really accessible. *I hate over-complicated stuff. Big words and long fanciful sentence structure is nice and all, but not when they get in the way of communicating the doggone point!

I have only just discovered it my self but there is a series by Joy Hakim called The Joy of Science that I am looking at for fall or winter, my boys have yet to be hooked on Science, so I'm going to be investigating more to try and learn more about it. ETA: It does not seem to have a strong Bio-chem focus, but to talk about how science has progressed naturally through the ages and addressing how it interweaves through everything, so that is what I like. I'm not a huge fan of segregated learning in the early years. Sorry if it doesn't help.

The first post has been updated with more programs/suggestions. Its amazing how many options are out there. I hope more folks come to discuss. OH! I added a VERY SERIOUS poll, please vote and I will give my review/feedback about the Geometry programs that I'm familiar with.

:grouphug: .

I feel you. I did after hours janitorial work for a few years and some of the stuff you find around is just YUCK!

Thank you lewelma and everyone else who replied. I'm still wrestling with this a bit. A good bit. A lot. A whole, whole, whole lot. One minute I have a plan in mind, the next minute I'm in turmoil again. I don't know if I feel up to this, I really don't. I understand why parents send their kids to school--I really, really do. There are already a million and one ways for a parent to screw up their kids and I feel like I've just had my potential for failure doubled twice over now.... I do know this much: As we move beyond elementary arithmetic/mathematics, I'll be cutting back quantity and going for quality. While before we have done every problem, every time, that approach isn't going to be as feasible or very logical for Algebra where the problems are easily 4-8 steps and many of them are precision exercises. Besides, our reason for doing so in MM was different, there was more to learn by doing all the problems in elementary math and not all of them were math related. But those reasons won't take as high of priority in upper level math. I'm going to have switch the focus to problem solving for '2nd grade'. I realized that I feel uncomfortable with what I have seen of AoPS - Intro. to Algebra so I'm going to try and take another, more in-depth look at the program and see what it will take 1) put my mind at ease 2) to better understand the method that can be used to guide/coach precocious children and 3) to get them ready for that type of instruction. Not the book, per se, but definitely that type -a- instruction/guidance we were discussing up above... I'm rethinking my original view on the Singapore CWP series (see here) and am thinking of tailoring their math syllabus toward the 'challenge' problems (especially for Algebra) in general. The way that they are talking now, I'm going to have let them drift apart for math sooner or later. Pal really, really wants to do Geometry. He has always enjoyed the geometry chapters in MM and his favorite math-friend is a big fan of Geometry also so theres that. I'm digging out all the resources that I have on hand and looking through the free stuff linked in the forums also. I had really hoped to go with Singapore upper level math programs, but it looks like none of them are complete anymore and I haven't been able to find any sets online 2nd hand, but that's a whole 'nother box of blooms. Still, there is a part of me that begins to feel more and more conflicted with encouraging or even just allowing this pursuit in my too-young-sons. Especially Pal. I love seeing him excited and engaged about something, I love seeing him thrive in 'our' subject, but a part of me--the selfish part--feels robbed and cheated of the chance to teach and guide my sons the way a normal teacher or parent would want to. Another part of me, the selfless, fretful paternal part is just afraid because I don't want him to burn out, I don't want him to crash into a glass ceiling at break-neck speed and I don't want him to come to hate math the way I have seen some of my friends grow to hate what was once a passion of theirs that their parents or coaches ruined for them. (ex: I have a friend who plays music exceptionally well, especially strings and yet, she hasn't played a note in 5 years after having been soured on the whole experience right after starting college) I guess that 2nd grade will be a year of big changes--I'll have to let go of course, if I want to allow them to reach their potential (in general, not just in math) but I don't want to 'drop them' so to speak and just let them crash and burn either. I feel ridiculous for even getting this worked-up over math for 6yos but...anyway, I'll stop there. After I made my last post in this thread, I decided to give myself some room and time from our math issues. I need to figure out the rest of our homeschool because despite what the boys say I think that elementary should include more than just math. Thank you all so much for all that you have contributed, both to this thread and to the forum in the past. I have been sifting through the archives a lot and I continue to unearth a trove of information, insight and inspiration on these boards.

Just start doing 20min of math a day. Sit beside your 1st grader when they are doing math and do your own work. Read your kids book ahead of them one or two days at a time. Read the TM ahead of time, prepare for the lesson and presenting it. To improve your math skills though, just work at it. Create a KhanAcademy Account and buy a workbook. Just do a good basic review of +,-,/,x and then the workbooks by Key Curriculum Press on Fractions, Decimals, Percents. You Can Do It!

I can't vouch for anything, but this thread has a bunch of suggestions about Italian resources and Rosetta Stone. Hope that it helps.

Are you kidding! Of course I would be interested in it! My guys are 6 and 7 right now...Its my 6yo who wants more Geometry and there is never anything wrong with spending more time discussing something--even if they are familiar with it. Imaginative is just another word for 'wonderful' when it comes to math. The wackier, livelier, or funnier something is, the more we enjoy it here at GEAR! Fortunately for me, the boys don't dread 'busy work'. They are just happy to be discussing or doing math :) ETA: I believe you said you'd found a 'few' things...anything else we should know about? ETA#2: Please NOTE: This thread is meant to be epic and useful to all, not just me and my kids. So everyone, please, please, please share any thing that you have--especially if it is free--because as someone else said: "Sharing is Caring" :)

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I have seen a dozen or more threads on algebra and pre-algebra programs--including a few epic ones like the Pre-Algebra and Algebra Fence Straddlers threads which are effing EPIC! I'm still reading and taking notes!--but I haven't found any on Geometry. Forgive me if there is an Epic Geometry Thread and I've missed it. (Please link it here, if there is one) I searched the archives of the Highschool, K-8 and and Logic Stage/Middle School boards before starting this. If you've used any of the programs I list, can you please provide some feedback on it. I'm just looking ahead to the next 6-18months but I can't make spur of the moment purchases so I need to know ahead of time what to look out for. I like to try and get books via ILL to evaluate them. While Pal is Geo-curious he isn't quite ready for a full course on proof-based Geometry...yet so we will probably make 2 passes at Geometry. Any and all feedback is appreciated. Based on my experience, this forum and a site of HS curriculum reviews I have compiled a list of programs to discuss. Please, please, please feel free to add anything that I have over looked! Key to Geometry (Key Curriculum Press) Understanding Geometry (Critical Thinking Company.) Geometry Practice Book (Mark Twain Media) Discovering Geometry: An Investigative Approach + Workbook (David Serra) Paper Patty Geometry + Workbook (David Serra) Math U See: Geometry (Steve Demme) Geometry for Christian Schools (BJU Press) Saxon Geometry (Saxon Publishing) A Fresh Approach: Geometry (C. Walters) Geometry (UCSMP) Thinkwell Geometry Geometry DVD Course (The Teaching Company) Geometry: Seeing, Doing and Understanding (H. Jacobs) Life of Fred: Geometry Teaching Textbooks: Geometry Geometry PACES or DVDS (School of Tomorrow) Plane Geometry (A Beka) Geometry: A Guided Inquiry (w or w/o DVD support by Math Without Borders: Geometry [Thank you, RedSquirrel for the clarification!] VideoText: Geometry [Following are suggestions courtesy of Arcadia!] Geometry (Ray C. Jurgensen, Richard G. Brown, and John W. Jurgensen) Geometry for Challenge and Enjoyment (Richard Rhoad, George Milauskas, and Robert Whipple) AoPS: Introduction to Geometry (AoPS - Richard Rusczyk) Geometry, Book I Planimetry (A.P. Kiselev) Lessons in Geometry, I. Plane Geometry (Jacques Hadamard) Geometry Revisited (H. S. M. Coxeter and S. L. Greitzer) [Thank you, Arcadia for all of the above!] Modern Geometry: Structure and Method [Thank you, RedSquirrel] First Lessons in Geometry (T. Hill) FREE PDF [super Thank You to CritterFixer] Geometry - Book 1: Planimetry (A.P. Kiselev) Geometry - Book 2: Stereometry (A.P. Kiselev) [Thank you, CrimsonWife] Elementary Geometry for College Students (D.C. Alexander) [Thank you 8FillTheHeart] Geometry: A Hands-On Geometric Approach (Right Start) [Thank you CMama] Rays Treatise on Geometry and Trigononmetry (Rays | Eclectic Education Series) [Thank you CritterFixer] Rays Analytic Geometry (Rays | Eclectic Education Series) [Thank you CritterFixer] [Thank you Wapiti for the following] Basic Concepts in Geometry: An Intro to Proof. (Frank Allen) Euclids Elements (Euclid,D. Densmore and T.L. Heath) Geometry: Euclid and Beyond (R. Harsthorne) [Thank you Wapiti for the above!] Art of Problem Solving: Introductory Geometry [Thank you lewelma!] Discuss :)

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! What agency is this?!!

Well, *I* reevaluate on the daily! The boys say that they love HS and want to continue forever (Uh...no. 12th grade, maybe. Forever? NO WAY!) However, I don't want my kids to get a 'standard' education. As far as my experience has taught me, a standard/run-of-the-mill education is essentially a waste youth. I want their education to mean something to them and/or to serve them in their lives. So there are goals that I have in mind for them--ie multilingualism, specific skill sets, etc--and no matter where they attend school I would strive to make those things a reality for them. I think that I am okay with the idea of homeschooling at least until Middle school. This first year as official HSers is rough but thats not so much to do with their school and more with just the state of our lives right now. Hopefully things will settle down when I finish school. I am open to moving to a new country to help the boys be challenged academically, broaden their horizons, gain more world experiences and to learn a new language, I am open to letting them take the reigns of their own education as they are older (depending on their maturity) because already my boys show signs of knowing what they want and I hesitate to make all the decisions for them, but its tough... all that and I still reserve the right to change my mind every few weeks. But mostly I am in until 6th grade (11/12yo).

I'm as far from being an expert in music as you can get. We went to our first music/singing lesson last night and the boys had a lot of fun. However, their teacher was telling me that they should take an instrument because voice lessons aren't the best thing for them given their ages--6 and 7. He introduced them to his electronic piano and I think he's going to be using the piano as a platform to teach them about singing. The teacher said that piano is a prime choice for young kids. Here is a thread I made a while back, asking about a music education provided in home.

Okay, thought about it some more and knee jerk reaction aside--is there an alternate route that you could take? Or maybe you can carry a baggy of dog treats and toss one away from you so that the dog goes for the treat instead of you? (I don't know dogs at all, so someone let me know if this is a bad idea.) Maybe if you take the time to pat the dog and redirect him, you can train him to a 10 second exchange instead of a 3 minute one?

I love salmon dip. I love seeing it at parties so much that I almost always bring some because I really do love that stuff and its not really a party without some Salmon Dip.

Could you maybe carry a good spray bottle of water and give it to Fido when he wanders to close? (Personally in this situation: I'd pepper spray the animal, but I'm confrontational like that)

I would work through the summer on math and not be worried about grade level. The three big topics for most 1st grade curricula. They are -a- Counting (forward, backward, and skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s) to 100, -b- Addition and subtraction and -c- place value. You could work on those three topics using worksheets, games, manipulatives, whatever all summer long. Do your math facts so that you are doing fact families (meaning addition and subtraction) for each group of numbers. When the time comes, give her the placement test and buy what she needs based on her placement.

I'd talk to the camp and see if they'd be willing to make an exception if my 16 would in anyway be interested in going. But again, I'm big on water skills and I think that sailing would be an amazing thing to learn and a great skill to have. Worst case scenario is that they can't accommodate you on letting the elder teen attend. I would still be sending my younger boy though.

I would contact the testing center at his school to ask if they have a recommendation for how to stack multiple courses. I wouldn't advice taking all 3 on the same day, but I don't see why studying for 2 or 3 at a time should be particularly troublesome. After all you study multiple subjects at a time anyway. I say study for 2 or 3 at a time, then take one a week so that there is time for deep revision between exams unless he is very confident that he'll do well.

Does your 8yo want to go too? Can you afford to buy 2 tickets? I'd send them both if I could.