The SWR trainer I worked with using this to help the kids remember. o with two dots, u with two dots, long o in this order. oo (o two dots), I see a donut. oo (the u two dots), could i have that donut? oo (long o) no, it fell on the ground.

Well, this is going on in my neck of the woods. http://www.nerdcon2016.com/

+1 on IP and CWP. I would also consider Fan-math Express Speed Maths as well for mental math. This is a supplement for Singapore Math.

You could just do SOTW with the AG. Choose from the suggest literature and history selections. Lots of people will draw books from the Sonlight reading lists and insert them into their year as they like. The cost between the two quite significant. I don't have the most recent Core reading lists on my spreadsheet, but you are welcome take a look at my compiled list that is linked here on my blog. https://lifeatwarpspeed.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/good-literature-is-what-everyone-needs-to-feed-their-childs-soul/

I have Le Francais Facile. http://www.theeasyfrench.com/ Cathy Duffy reviews it here: http://cathyduffyreviews.com/homeschool-reviews-core-curricula/foreign-language/french/le-francais-facile-the-easy-french

Stack the States and Stack the Countries are great apps.

Thank you so much!

Would you be willing to share your schedules for the all the other levels? I'm not there yet...just planning to start out.

Definitely think you can get the challenge aspect that you want using SM's IP and CWP. Alternatively, you could use Beast and SM in sequence. I use Beast a level behind SM. SM does the job on teaching and solidifying the topic. Then when I pick up Beast later, the topic has gelled and my son is solid on working with that topic and ready to go deeper.

+1 on the staying up late to study, prep, work, etc.

I bought a course during the previous sale on SP history in December. I was actually surprised to see another sale so soon in March.

You may want to consider using SM's Intensive Practice and Challenging Word Problems books to provide more depth and challenge. Those are well worth your time to do. I was surprised at the complexity of some of the problems in those books. It has been very stretching for my son. I also use other math resources to offer challenge and depth as appropriate to develop problem solving skills and stamina.

There was one in March for self-paced history, and the Omnibus one was just at the end of May/beginning of June.

I literally live down the road from the AOPS office in San Diego...as in I could walk or bike there. It would be really awesome if that could happen here.

If you already have Sonlight...then you might as well edit out the religious parts. Bookshark is the secular arm of Sonlight.

Hmmm...the mind map idea appeals to me. Drawing though may be problematic. My kiddo detests doing anything remotely art oriented. Off to noodle about this. I do want to teach outlining skills, but I recognize this is beyond where he is at right now.

I've been thinking about the middle school level textbooks that my son will be tackling for science this year. Conceptually, he is ready for the challenge. However, I am concerned about the sheer amount of information being covered. I would like to provide some help/structure around that. What I have been thinking about is that the skill of outlining and note taking is beyond his abilities and writing output. This would be how I would approach organizing information that I am reading. I don't know how else to help him organize information in a way that makes it easy for him to find key information effectively and for him to reference back to the textbook. Looking back, I know that no one ever taught me how to take notes effectively on reading material. I didn't figure this out until years after I already graduated from college. I just happened to have a good enough memory that I got away with that. What I am thinking about doing is to assist him with note taking. I want him to read the material by section. Then I would like him to pause and work with me by talking about what he just read. I would like to prompt him with questions about what he just read to identify the main points and details. I believe that he is capable of doing this as we have been doing some work on this skill in WWE and SOTW. What I would like to do is to avoid him worrying (translate: getting frustrated) about getting it down on paper at all. I want to keep the focus just on verbalizing what he is thinking. I was thinking about scribing for him and organizing his mental notes neatly on paper. More than likely, it will be Cornell style note taking. I realize that this makes it far more parent intensive for me to participate along with him this way. For those who have BTDT, does this sound like a workable plan or am I overthinking this?

If you want to try Singapore Math style word problems which is essentially applying math for problem solving, then I would suggest trying the Fan Math series. I would even consider started a level or two lower than where you are at. When a student is good at computational skills and not word problems, that is usually an indicator that a student has memorized an algorithm and may not really understand the why behind the math. If they struggle with word problems, then there is a gap between their ability to calculate and their ability to recognize 1) what the problem is asking and 2) applying the math they know to solve the problem. Or to put it another way, they don't have a solid conceptual grasp of math in order to recognize and apply math. CWP is not necessary and probably overkill. Fan Math actually will teach you step by step how to solve Singapore style word problems. The quality of word problems that my son is exposed to doing SM is far and away above anything that I ever saw growing up. Here's the link for you at Rainbow Resource: https://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?subject=Mathematics/10&category=Process+Skills+in+Problem+Solving/492

I use K12 as a private user...we are quite happy with it. Especially once I figured out how to make it work on an iPad using Puffin browser.

MOH is definitely older. I would use it 4th and up. Keep in mind Hobar has a distinctly Christian perspective which is something to be aware of. The interpretation that she has may or may not always jive with your particular theological persuasion. Vol 1 & 2 are friendly enough with youngers, but the reading level steps up between volumes. Vol 1 is around 3rd/4th grade reading level. By the time, you are at vol 4, it's 9th/10th reading level which is probably not great if you are targeting elementary aged kids and you are trying to do a single series through a history cycle. SOTW is friendlier for younger children and older. It's secular, but Christian friendly. She wrote it to be done twice. 1-4, 5-8. The WTMA uses SOTW for the middle school history courses. Though the SWB says that volume four is best left for 4th and older because of the nature of the topics and the tone changes. If you look at the activity guides for SOTW 1 & 2, it is definitely friendlier to younger grades with more crafts/activities. SWB has history and literature selections for both youngers and olders. She notes the grade ranges for independent reading level as well as the read aloud level for all the selections. I wouldn't say that one is necessarily better than the other. They each have their pros and cons. For example, SOTW in the tries to weave in more story so included relevent fables and myths in the volumes. It includes biblical history in the context of overall world history. SOTW does incorporate more US history in volumes 3 & 4 than MOH does. MOH tries to weave biblical and Christian history throughout. So, it really depends on your personal goals. I actually believe in using multiple perspectives when studying history as you can see from my siggy. I run 3 programs concurrently that for us fills in where the others give lighter or no coverage. SOTW/K12 are secular so I run VP self-paced which is distinctly Christian Reformed. Then again, my kiddo really likes history, so there's that as well. I actually do have both and plan to do the MOH once I finish the SOTW loop. For MOH, I plan to run K12's Human Odyssey which is completely secular alongside.

I thought I remember people saying JA series is fine before AOPS. Going the other way is too easy though.

I am fairly certain if you do the whole thing that it covered pre-algebra (JA) through algebra 1 (C&C and R&D).

Maybe Logic Safari series from Prufrock Press?

I have two uncles who taught in SFUSD as math teachers. One is still doing it. The other retired the minute he qualified for his pension because of the previous older policy of everyone takes Algebra 1 in 8th grade. There were tons of kids that had no business taking that in 8th grade. Now the pendulum has swung the other way which I know are driving both of them completely bonkers. There are tons of Asian families who are incredibly angry about this new policy. The well off have their kids in private school which is HUGE business in SF. When I was practicing as a CPA, I audited many of these schools. It's a big business in the City. You are often paying more than what university would cost. The middle class are leaving the City for the suburbs because the lottery system in SF can have you shuttling each of your kids to different schools all over the City. There are no guarantees that you get to go to the school in your neighborhood or for your kids to attend the same school. This contributes to an amazing amount of unnecessary traffic IMO. If you are lucky enough to get into a charter school then those are the middle class families that stay. It's a terribly broken system. I say that as the majority of my family lives in SF. The only ones doing public are the ones that lucked out with getting into a charter or decent school through the lottery system. Otherwise, they are shelling out bucks for private school. It's really ugly in the City...huge disparity between the haves and have nots. ETA: Under the intergrated math model, parents are upset because there is no way to get to AP Calculus by or before senior year unless 2 or 3 years of math are compressed in high school which makes the course load more onerous during say a heavily loaded junior year for example. They attempting a strategy of getting more than the 4x5 core course load by front loading what they can so that their student has more than the 4x5 and thereby demonstrating a rigorous course load. I know the Asian parents are in complete freak out mode because their student is going to look less competitive in the already hypercompetition to somehow stand out among other Asian applicants.

There are several series of books that were so much fun that I remember them from when I was young that haven't been mentioned yet. Lois Lenski's books (i.e. Strawberry Girl) The Littles by Peterson Wizard of Oz (lots of followup books) by Baum The Latsch Valley books (i.e. First Farm in the Valley) by Anna Pellowski Caddie Woodlawn by Brink The Borrowers by Norton Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by MacDonald Secret Garden & Little Princess by Burnett Moffat series by Estes Mary Poppins series by Travers Any E.B. White book Homer Price books by McCloskey Pippi Longstocking books by Lindgren Golden Name Day series (i.e. The Crystal Tree) by Lindquist Five Little Peppers series by Sidney Encyclopedia Brown series by Sobol Paddington the Bear by Bond