We tried the switch, but the school system was not equipped to handle AL kids. We will be doing a mix of homeschool and DE for 10th and beyond. Otherwise, the switch was fine. I would be supportive of it as long as the child is adequately prepared.

A slightly different perspective here... I think this site does well while others struggle because it fulfills a purpose - several, probably. Among the big needs we as AL parents have: First, we need to know what our academic options are. This site hits the nail on the head. As far as I can tell, the majority of identified PG kids are home schooled because they have no other options. Identifying and implementing advanced curriculum is challenging, and this site addresses the challenge head-on, and efficiently. Second, we need to find ways to keep the kids happy, or at least sated. Activities are not really the problem. I don't believe most of our kids are really starved for activities (though they may be demanding ones!). We can find activities. However, because of their quirks, it can be very difficult for our kids to find peers who are like-minded. This site offers no help on this front, and does not pretend to. I would have to say that is the single largest void we, as parents, have not been able to address successfully. Third, we need to know we aren't crazy. For that, private conversations are essential. We can research blogs and read others' posts to gain some valuable insight, but we and our kids are not living a normal life. We may try to make it as normal as possible, but the reality is these kids defy norms. Most people assume we are vainly forcing our children to exceed their natural limits. They cannot comprehend that we are trying to slow them, allow them to mature, encourage them to engage with a population that is so thoroughly unlike them. They cannot understand that we might happily have "normal" kids, if only our kids would be happy as a result. They don't grasp how a 10-year old could pull herself out of organized play activities because they are too intense, or how a 3-year old could prefer days of starvation above eating a strange new food. The only things I have seen other adults recognize correctly are that the kids are unusually bright, and that their eccentricities are part of who they are and how they think. I would love to find a network to discuss challenges. I fear, though, that in order to go broadly enough to find like-minded families, the forum would have to become one of the "others." If we only aim to tackle need #3, a private group may be successful. If it's #1, then we could splinter and actually do damage to other families yet to face our challenges. Personally, I'm game for anything - raising HG/PG kids is just that nutty.

Honestly, it sounds like she needs more 1-on-1 attention. Independent learning is not going to work. When the steps of a procedure don't sink in, it's also time to turn to conceptual gaps. In this, I don't mean formulae and sequences - many kids with dyscalcula struggle with procedural approaches. What we have done in the past with students we have tutored included pulling out Legos as manipulatives, using muscle memory, and simply providing lots of extra time. TT, MM or MUS may be your best choices (Math-U-See probably the most accessible of the three). Unless the dyscalcula is very minor, I wouldn't begin to consider the extreme curricula. Those others may have bombed in the past, but bouncing around isn't likely to help.

I hear that! We've tried several times in our very local area, and although we have found a couple of families with PG and 2E challenges, there wasn't enough critical mass to keep anything going. We all figure we're just on our own to some extent. This forum has been the best we've found overall.

Ah, those. Yeah, not as useful as some DYS spin-offs. Our local one has been decent - mainly to bring groups together from across the state.

Which TAG forum are you referring to? Just curious. Most of those forums, including the talent search sites, seem to be full of the "how do I keep up with the Joneses" participants. We've found only a handful of resources that actually seem to "get" what it's like to raise a PG kid.

Saxon 65 to AoPS PreAlgebra will work fine. It's switching from Saxon Algebra (and onward) to AoPS that I meant to suggest would be a problem. Just be prepared for some adjustment early on!

Don't underestimate a kid's ability to abstract. They are far more capable than most adults. I wouldn't expect them to read a college text or solve proofs, but the concepts can be learned quite adeptly by a young child. I've used my college abstract algebra book as a resource (for myself) in leading 6-7 year olds. I led them through sets, operations, groups, relations, functions, and on down the line. One of the tricks was to throw in physical activity to describe commutativity, association, etc. A tile floor allows them to create their own 1- and 2-dimensional systems and unique operations, and test the results of the operations experimentally. Those same kids look at arithmetic very differently when they learn it later. It's definitely enrichment, and not a course. I don't know of a suitable book, so a teacher would be needed for young kids.

Ah - if you want to enhance exposure to new topics, I would make a different suggestion. Look for a theory of arithmetic book that discusses alternative mathematical systems used in the past (Egyptian, Babylonian, Mayan, etc al). It is very enlightening for a child to see how "invented" all of mathematics is. A simple intro to group theory is also fantastic, for the same reasons. I have found that most children can handle these topics as soon as they understand multiplication.

If he is devouring BA, you probably don't need a whole lot of extras. When he finishes BA5, he's probably ready for AoPS Prealgebra. You can take it as slow as is needed. We're also a math family, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised that both boys are pretty good at math. With the older one, we took him through multiple programs for each course, because he races through and then comes back for mastery (big picture to details). However, we just stuck with college texts and a sprinkling of high school texts. He's headed to 10th grade, and planning on Calc III + Linear Algebra through a college next year. For the younger one - who started to teach himself algebra at 6 - we've taken a different approach. He works until he understands a topic, so we don't have to repeat topics very often. Instead, we have layered in a geometry/pure track (Jurgensen Geometry/Kiselev Planimetry/Kiselev Stereometry/Mathematics of Relativity; Vector Space Geometry next year) and an analysis track (AoPS algebras; AoPS precalculus next year) simultaneously. We will add in Gelfand's trigonometry next year for extra depth. This has worked well for him since he wants to study cosmology. If you have a patient kid who is willing to experiment, and you don't mind a little challenge, I highly recommend layering in Kiselev and possibly Gelfand. Otherwise, just BA/AoPS is fine. There's no race, but no need to forcibly slow a kid, either. Let him be happy with his pace, and you'll be happy, too.

We used MIT-OCW for many of these. While you need Internet to access them initially, you can download / save videos offline and use them as needed. The content is extremely rigorous, as you might imagine.

I would think a high school Earth science or astronomy course would be very accessible. Have you checked the various distance programs like TTUISD?

One more thing to add: Saxon requires very little teacher support, but even so, it works best with a very strong teacher. Programs like AoPS will require tutoring and/or teacher support. Few kids succeed with it 100% independently. As for switching from one to the other, it is VERY easy to switch into Saxon at any point (because it is spiral repetition / drill), but going to AoPS will frustrate most students who are not used to a challenge. The other options across the middle of the spectrum have a little more flexibility to either direction.

Absolutely is. The student generally has to back up a bit to make the transition. Saxon provides tons of drill while AoPS provides little, but AoPS requires lots of thought and perseverance, while Saxon does not. They are about as polar opposite as two curricula can get.

Many, many of the top STEM students here go with Singapore, Beast Academy, and/or AoPS. We used at least three different curricula,but because both DW and I can teach math straight through college-level, we use some curricula that aren't very homeschool-friendly, like Kiselev and Gelfand. Our argument would be, if you want your child to learn to think, take the AoPS route. If you want precise, rote calculation without thought, use Saxon. Anything in between, you can consider TT, MUS, MM, or any of the others. We still prefer classic texts over any of those programs.

We used "The Unfinished Nation" videos with Brinkley's "American History: A Survey." It worked great - both the videos and textbook are classic, very well made, and perfectly correlated. For the older son, we added readings also correlated to the historic period so that he was done reading just as he was working on the main history content - letting him experience the history in context. We found daily worksheets for Unfinished Nation online, and pulled test content from AP US History prep books. Without further studying, he was able to score over 80% consistently (roughly a 5 on the AP test). The only problem: while the books are easy to find (and affordable), the videos are becoming scarce. I wouldn't be surprised to find them online for free somewhere. Here was our reading list, in order: Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter James Fenimore Cooper - The Last of the Mohicans James Best - Tempest at Dawn Carolyn Meyer - Where the Broken Heart Still Beats Harriet Beecher Stowe - Uncle Tom's Cabin Stephen Crane - The Red Badge of Courage Edmund Morris - The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird James Michener - Tales of the South Pacific JD Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye John Updike - Rabbit, Run and Rabbit, Redux

We're still trying to figure out our path. DS15 did C&P in middle school, and Calc BC in 9th. He's planning to do Calc III, Linear Algebra, Applied Statistics, Prob & Stats, and perhaps intermediate analysis & foundations of mathematics, or maybe mathematical statistics and data science, or maybe discrete math and mathematical foundations of comp sci. I don't think the 4-years bit means much after calculus. Beyond that, things get silly very quickly.

Not for economics/business - that is essentially AP stats. It isn't a bad course, but it's the algebra-based one. Look for one for scientists & engineers. It's typically a sophomore- or junior-level math course. Some CC's offer it, some don't. We have the book by Peggy Tang Strait - it's really well written.

Honestly, after calc, I'd take a close look at a calculus-based probability and statistics course. You could lead in with AoPS, but the content of the calculus-based course is much richer (and more fun!), and isn't really much harder.

Art of War is super, super simple. Machiavelli's The Prince is very challenging, but is the classic for strategic thinking. I've never read anything else by him. Of course, there are others - Thucydides and Clausewitz spring to mind.

Participation grades have a legitimate place, and this may be one. For other strategic readings, also look to political philosophers like Plato and Machiavelli. You'll find plenty of resources there, and can have some very interesting discussions on ethics and effectiveness. You can also throw in game theory topics for variety.

While I really like this approach, we've found that it only works up to a certain degree of asynchronicity. You ultimately still need so many credits in each subject area, and may have to reach back to find them.

Purdue University runs a free course each year. It is very well constructed and accessible to home school students. We've also used MIT-OCW, but it is not for the faint-hearted. Very, very good though.

Not as a curriculum, no. You may well find something along the lines of "introduction to logic" offered by a philosophy department or on EdX, Coursera, et al.

Would you mind sharing which school this was? I don't know if it will change our course of action, but it would be nice to understand any coming trends.