FWIW, my two cents is that the school is probably using this path to improve AP test score outcomes of their students by going this route. The local high performing high school by me utilizes this route by going a trimester year. So you can do 2 trimesters of the bio, then 2 trimesters AP bio later. Same with Chem and then AP Chem. and still fit 4 courses in under a three year period plus fit in a physics sequence as well.

This op-ed was in the WSJ last week. Even though I live in a top performing district, I still choose to homeschool because what is offered is still far below what I can offer at home. Otherwise, I would be squeezing afterschooling enrichment into less ideal times for learning. My PS teacher friends from college have all encouraged me to keep my LO out of school as they said there is really nothing for him there. http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bright-students-left-behind-1440024541

I find value in doing both. We are doing SM first and follow with Beast. I find that the experience is deeper/richer by learning the topic via SM and then playing/discovering/exploring with Beast. It is also a way for me to keep math interesting and challenging without rushing into the calculus trap that RR (AOPS) talks about. That being said I still quite like using SM's IP and CWP as well.

We are using it a year behind SM. It's very stretching for him. The topics are similar to SM, but it is so different and much more challenging. I have learned things about math in the 3A book that I have never seen in my life, and we aren't even halfway through 3A. You can easily sell the books for a good price if you don't write in the practice books.

Do you have to use Saxon? Will they allow you to use an alternative that you buy for him to use? For math adept kids, Saxon can be very tedious bordering on torture by boredom. Can they just let him do assessments to show mastery?

Would doing Veritas Press self-paced history be an option? I think these are really very well done.

For Dr. Wile's series which I am using Science in the Ancient World this year, he did suggest (when I wrote to him) to focus co-op classes around doing the experiments to be followed up by the readings and questions after at home.

Are you looking for timeline cards to use with SOTW? There are cards that you can use in the back of the Activity Guide for SOTW.

ELTL has level 0 that is completely free. I found it one day poking around on the website. I guess not a lot of people know about this. Here is the link. http://www.lulu.com/shop/kathy-jo-devore/pathways-english-lessons-through-literature-level-0/ebook/product-22086376.html

I use homeschool-life.com. They are implementing some improvements soon that will make things run even smoother for processing and managing payments on the events side of the equation. I am the treasurer for our co-op. We run a lot of classes and events with more than 200 families.

On their website, it says $179 for the course. I assume this is 12 months of access to that one course.

Does anyone know if this ever goes on sale? We love the VPSP history courses. The $99 sale price when it happens makes it so much more affordable.

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I will put in my two cents that where you are in CA matters a lot. Seaconquest is in SD. Hybrid charters that cater to homeschoolers are common in this county. Less so in the LA/OC area. Nearly non-existent in the Bay Area and other parts of CA. So, where you are in CA matters a lot.

FYI...Apologia Biology does not cover any human anatomy which is a big minus in my book. I say this as someone who does use Apologia texts to teach at my own co-op. So, if you go this route, you need to be prepared to cover this separately by doing human anatomy/physiology somehow.

Thank you! It will be so helpful to actually see a sample and what a particular instructor is like.

Sometimes taking a break and doing something else for a couple of weeks helps. Feeling like you are doing the same thing all the time can be frustrating. I wouldn't suggest BA for a kid that doesn't like to struggle and wrestle with math. It is not easy nor always obvious since it is discovery oriented. It's a good thing, but not for every kid. The assessment is definitely does not reflect the type of or degree of difficulty of the questions that are in BA for sure. I am often stumped and have to think and work at problems that come up in BA because it isn't automatically obvious. I wasn't a slouch when it came to maths either. DH is a software engineer and thinks the problems are pretty tough at times.

I am pretty sure that registration is online. https://sat.collegeboard.org/register/

A really beautiful series of apps that brings chemistry alive. Totally worth the sale price. These images by Theodore Gray are absolutely stunning. This is my blog review about it. http://wp.me/p1M41l-18t

Whoa...if anyone is following this thread. Touchpress put their apps on sale 80% off. I scooped up Molecules for $2.99, Elements in Action for $0.99. That expensive Elements app I have is $2.99 right now.

Have you ever heard of this store? My Bay Area friends with kids that are lefties love this store. https://www.leftyslefthanded.com/

Totally a side thought...I really wonder whether or not ch.1 of 3A is has a similar effect like the infamous ch.4 in the pre-algebra text. I think it must be if they actually refer to this chapter in the FAQ! I have seen a few people selling BA that say only a few pages are written on in 3A. Makes me wonder if they are giving up because it is so difficult.

They are definitely not kidding about ch.1 of 3A being very difficult and challenging. I'm glad that I opted to do SM 3 before starting Beast. It helps us to have a solid foundation to start from when diving into deeper, gotta wrestle with this sort of math. And I am ever so glad that my son reads several grades above level, it makes it so much easier to digest the problems and understand what he is looking at. I am pretty certain that we will continue to do both SM and BA for our journey. I'm not in a rush to get to algebra which I know will come sooner anyways. We have reaped huge benefits in introducing the topic in SM and letting it marinate in his brain for a couple of months and revisiting with IP/CWP and then passing through again at some point with BA. I can just see the maturity and growth in his approach each time through going deeper and more challenged to think each time.

So that we can go deeper and wider while not rushing any faster towards algebra. I have a 6yo (7 in the fall). We use SM 4A with IP and SWP and add in the following to stretch things out. Beast 3A, Zaccaro, Borac, Kitchen Table Math, Life of Fred, Hands on Equations, Fan Math Express Math Strategies and CTC's Balance Benders. It looked crazy when I write it out, but I really like how the different resources bring out a different aspect.

I decided to send in feedback about what I thought about the Zaccaro sessions and why I was disappointed. I also really like his books as well.