What's the best math class for this kid? Rising sixth grader. He went through Singapore Math in the early grades. I've switched him over to Beast Academy. He has finished Khan Academy Pre-algebra and BA5. While I could continue teaching him math, I think at this point, he'd benefit from a group of kids in a class where he can share problem solving strategies. I had him do the AOPS placements. He's either clearly ready for Pre-Algebra 2 or almost ready for Algebra I. He also has a mild dyslexia, so the AOPS book is too text heavy. He vastly prefers the format of BA to their PA book. He also gets anxious and is considerably more comfortable in a smaller group. FWIW, I'm likely to continue homeschooling him through middle school, but I may have to find a public or private school for him in high school due to family health issues. I'm concerned about putting him in algebra I in 6th and then not having a placement for him in high school. We live in an area that does not have a sixth grade algebra class and most schools do not have a seventh grade algebra class. He's definitely STEM oriented so I want to nurture that, but not overwhelm him. I'm looking specifically for a class with a mathy environment with lots of opportunities for group problem solving. I'm debating between WTM and AOPS. A three day a week WTM class seems preferable because of frequency, but I know that AOPS markets itself as class for mathy kids. Is there another course you'd recommend instead? He'd mostly likely qualify for CTY, but I have not submitted paperwork at this point. Thx.

Side note: To correct some of the statements above. Please check the state where you live. In some states, students that pass the GED (or one of the other exams) are awarded a ​full high school diploma, ​not just a high school equivalency. It's an important point because only about 40% of high school graduates actually have passing scores on the GED exam. Passing the test is not something less than a diploma and I wish more states would acknowledge that.

Looking for recommendations on either of these. DD is going into 5th grade. For the past few years she's taken once a week science and engineering courses with a group of about 8 other homeschoolers. Enjoys them, does fine, and likes the experiments. These classes lean heavily towards chemistry, physics, and engineering so I'm looking for biology content for fifth grade to round out her knowledge. She likes to read, likes art, and likes nature. I also have a rising second grader at home (who likes science, but doesn't read well enough to handle an upper elementary textbook and hates art), but I'm planning to have him listen in and participate with experiments rather than work out of a textbook. I have a science background myself (so in theory I could make my own, but I work part-time and I don't have the time available to make a complete biology program). Rest of curriculum skews classical. Science is the one area where I think WTM is weak. Input on either? Feel free to offer another science suggestion, but based on evolution. TIA

Hi, First of all, check with your state requirements. Some states, like mine - MD, give GED exam passers a full high school diploma and not just a GED certificate. Some states also allow other tests instead of the GED exam. Every state has a free GED or HS equivalency test prep program. Do not pay money for these if you go this route. Many times these are run through the local community college, but sometimes these are through the regular school system or library system. Google your county adult education program to see what turns up. These classes are required to be free. There is also often a free online GED tutoring program that is also offered. Also some states offer the National External Diploma Program for a high school diploma. These are not free, but consist of completing a portfolio of work that gets assessed by the adult education program in your county. If you are going the GED route, go to www.ged.com and try out the practice test. I teach GED preparation classes part time in addition to homeschooling. You can take a practice test online for each of the four exams to see how close you are to passing. Often the GED program has coupons/discounts on the website to reduce the cost and some states (mine included) reduce the cost for test takers. Based on your suggestion of your skills, I'd suggest that you try it out. You might be pleasantly surprised that you are either already over the cut-off or just below it. For math, you'll need some very simple algebra and very simple geometry. For the social studies exam, about half is US government and civics with the remainder divided up between history, geography, and economics. Within science, the bulk of the exam comprises two main science problems: environment and health. The disciplines of biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science are woven into those main topics. Good luck and hope this helps.

Help! I have two kids, a rising 4th grader and a rising 1st grader. The 4th grader is the harder one to hs. She reads pretty well, about a sixth grade level, but has some speech and grammatical errors, slow to process, and EF problems. She's slow to write and has a hard time organizing her ideas. I'm strongly considering the following two programs together, but worried it's too much. IEW- She has problems summarizing succinctly. I think this will help quite a bit and the sequence of routines should help. I don't think it's enough grammar though so I'm considering ordering MCT. I know they say it is written for gifted students. She has some 2E learning differences, but grammar is not one of her talents. She's artistic though so I think the illustrations and the story book format will appeal to her and help her remember the grammar. I could just buy grammar island and practice island, but they both love doing poetry tea so I could see using Music of the Hemispheres too. Are both of these something I can conceivably use together or will it take me forever to get through both of them throughout the year? FWIW, for reading, we loosely follow a reading through history sequence and we use Singapore for math. TIA

Help me figure out how to restart mid year. We homeschooled kindergarten and first and after a brief 6 month trial in the publi schools, we are most likely coming back to homeschooling. I'm not sure what curriculum to use at this point. My daughter has some challenges (she's been formally evaluated), mostly she processes things slowly which comes out primarily as a slow rate of speaking and wandering thoughts esp. when retelling stuff from the past. She's also highly anxious and scored at risk for depression on a behavioral assessment. On the plus side, she is decoding and reading above grade level (fluency rate is supposedly on grade level, but lower than her decoding and comprehension). She has beautiful handwriting, but takes forever to think about what she wants to write. Her spelling is great. We didn't get a lot of history or science done these past few months (mostly because afterschool time was taken up by homework and music and art lessons). For math - I already have Singapore 2a, 2b, and 3a (which we've been doing bit by bit this year) But for RLA, I'm not sure where to restart. For first grade we ended up using books 1-4 from ETC, WWE1, SOTW, and leveled readers. I'd kind of like to use Bookshark, but I'm not sure if I should purchase grade 2 or grade 3. If I purchase grade 3, we'd miss out on a bunch of history, but if I purchase grade 2, I'd be spending a lot of money for something that is only half right. Alternatively I could continue using what I used last year and try to get the history caught back up with the sequence. The next question is probably better answered on the learning challenges forum - She doesn't formally qualify for speech services, but apparently this is where her processing speed and working memory problems are most apparent. This is the part that drives all of us nuts. We did a formal eval through the schools. I know we could get more in depth testing done privately, but I am not even sure what else to ask for. The rest of her testing was average or higher.

It isn't a curriculum, but Stephanie Harvey's Strategies that Work has a great Appendix and text recommendations for teaching reading comprehension strategies.

I'm considering spending the money for LOE, but I'm unsure of which version to purchase. I have a seven year old who can read okay (very slightly ahead of grade level), but struggles with grammar, vocabulary, and decoding more than two syllable words. She also has an expressive language disorder, not large enough to qualify for services, but large enough to be noticeable in her rate of speaking and verb usage. My daughter would not be turned off by games and more babyish illustrations. I also have a four year old to think about AND I teach adult ESL students who are often struggling readers, writers, and spellers. These are mostly students that are orally fluent, but don't have a strong formal education in their first language. I don't think I can get work to pay for Essentials. Does Foundations also include Morphology, Grammar, and Latin roots? I'd like to be able to get the most use out of it as possible. TIA

I've been reading this board for a couple of months and finally got around to signing into an account. We've had the same discussion, mostly because I just wanted him to be aware of where the kids are skill wise. He's full time WOTH and PT homeschooler and I teach outside of the house about 10 hours a week mostly evenings. For the most part, I handle core subjects, he does bedtime reading and evening class pickup/shuttle. We both have a science and math background, but he has more history than I do. I wanted him to have a hand in some of the planning so what works for us is that he has input and helps plan projects while I do day to day.

I would suggest checking out the book Words Their Way and consider using that for a portion of your lessons. It's tactile, auditory, and visual and good for small groups. You can ramp it up for kids that are more advanced and it would also be fine for the 4.5 y.o. to follow along even if not fully ready for phonics.