Everyone else has the work :) One thing I strongly encourage my students to do is to write a translation with English some before going directly to the math. So a line I would use when explaining to my class before the work everyone above has written is... (supplement) - 3(complement) = 10 It doesn't have any variables yet, but it does get the problem started. Now the problem becomes recalling what's a supplement and what's a complement, but the first step with words really makes the next step much easier IMO.

I blame this board for getting me hooked on Sherlock.

:grouphug: Hope you have some of the really good chocolate! My father was army. My folks have their wedding anniversary and they also would celebrate a couple of months later so they'd hopefully be together at one point. I think the deployments nowadays are beyond ridiculous. It is nice that you've got better contact though... I was talking with my son today about how when I was 5 my father was in Korea for a year. I think due to expense he and my mother only talked on the phone two or three times that whole year. There were a lot of letters and audio tapes sent though! Thanks for your sacrifices. And it really sucks too.

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CTY is Center for Talented Youth. It's through Johns Hopkins Talent Search.

It's also often seen in statistics courses. Discrete math does a lot with sets.

I think that's in book 6. We've been doing the books as family read-alouds... basically one a year after finishing the school year :) I think when a child is reading the books himself, he can stop if it gets too scary. We refused to let our son read ahead at 7 and 8. I don't know if we'd have let him read at 9, but now at 10 we're getting ready to start book 7. Book 6 was tough for him at 9... but if you've preread the books, yeah, I'd let a 9yo read them.

I like fraction circles. I prefer unmarked manipulatives.

I wish you peace while you wait.

That's why my money is sitting in savings. I've finally got enough to actually get a CD but rates are so low it's just not worth it!

I love my laser printer. I hated my color inkjets, although my last one was in regular use over 8 or so years ago. I found inkjet would smear a lot more. I do sometimes miss color printing, but I am far less frustrated with my laser than I was with the inkjets. Yes, a cartridge is expensive but mine lasts me at least a couple of years.

It's pretty appalling. I had one student last term who was using the calculator to do arithmetic with distribution... problems like -3(3x^2 - 5x +8). I wish, wish, wish I were exaggerating. She didn't pass. I don't think you get any speed with the graphing calculator vs a scientific calculator except if there's a need for a graph. I haven't looked at the SAT and ACT yet. TI is what many schools want. Textbooks are written using TI as a model. The Casio is cheaper, but because it does exact answers, I don't allow it in the classes I teach. I also don't allow the TI-89 for the same reason. It looks like the N-spire does this as well, so I'll need to investigate more with it. I wanted to be sure my son didn't find playing with the calculator to be a distraction on tests which is why I let him start with it. Unless there's a need for graphs or major statistics, the 30XIIS is plenty (and under $20) and if TI is used in college, keystrokes are very similar so there's not a learning curve.

We just got my son a kindle with a completely separate account. It'll also let him have his books as his rather than tied to my account. I haven't played with the parental control features yet, although he knows his will be locked soon. I have the touch. To update my kindle, I had to download the update and then apply it via the usb cable. Before updating it, the parental controls wasn't even an option on mine.

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I like Martin-Gay's writing as a rule better than Lial. Of course, it does depend on the text. Interact software has this text as one of their books. It won't save work, but this would be a good supplement. Ch 1-6 would be Beginning Algebra and Ch 7-13 would be Intermediate Algebra at our cc (roughly... we'd probably pull the graphing chapter into Beg Alg).

We used the old version of CE. It was fine. I took a quick look at the new version and they've added in a lot. I might see if I could get an older edition rather than not using it (TM only is fine in old one). CE is 5 stems in one lesson, 5 words in the next. I really like it and I like how my son is recognizing CE words in books he's reading on his own. We're using CE 2 this year and MCT grammar. We haven't used the writing or poetry.

I started letting my son use a calculator at age 9 with some of the Singapore Challenging Word Problems. I did it so he'd be more comfortable with it when it was allowed on the Explore exam. If the problem is basic computation, he can't use it. If the problem is checking problem solving, I'm willing to let him use the calculator so a computation error doesn't mess up the whole problem. So, with the CWP, if it's in the challenge section he can often use the calculator. For high school courses and some college courses, the TI-84 is currently the calculator of choice in many places. That's changing some now with the N-spire (also TI). Graphing calculators are cool because of some of the investigation they allow students to do. The drawback is that these calculators most often aren't used effectively. Our cc has a graphing calculator as a requirement on the departmental syllabus in Intermediate Algebra. I don't require it when I teach because I think everything in that course can and should be done with at most a standard calculator. But in later courses they want students to have some familiarity with graphing functions on the calculator and using some of the features (calculate intercepts, points of intersection). I expect I'll let my son use a graphing calculator on occasion in high school (show him how to do certain things on mine), but I don't think I'd get him his own until calculus...or maybe when he went to college and got whatever was required there. So I'd get the TI-30XIIS (specific model...two line calculator so you can see what was typed) to get him familiar with notation on the calculator, but I'd only allow its use on word problems and if a decimal approximation is needed (like with finding approximations from the quadratic formula or playing with calculator entry for radicals).

It'd be really cheap for us... apart from plane tickets... They would only want us to pay $400. I can swing that! They'd want our son to contribute $2200. Of course, it's a complete longshot to get accepted.... but boy...would that be affordable! Now to keep my husband from getting any raises.... ;)

And allow yourself permission to grieve over the loss.

The illustration I use for why -2^2 is -4 and not +4 is this... If you had 7-2^2 as your problem, you'd write your next step as 7-4, not 7+4 In this way, if the 7 weren't there, we need -2^2 tobe -4, otherwise we've got a problem when the 7 is there... We need consistency. Also...order of operations...the base is 2, then it's being negated. We must have parentheses if we wanted the base to be -2.

You may also want to ask on the Accelerated Learner Board. My son has participated in talent searches through Northwestern (NUMATS), Johns Hopkins (CTY), and this year Duke (TIP). The talent programs let your child take an out-of-level test. The programs have explanations on their sites on why to take an out-of-level test (spreads out the upper end of the bell curve if your child is testing in the >95% on a standardized test). We also had an IQ test done last year. I'd met with a psychologist who does IQ testing a couple years before when someone else set it up. She said "You test when you have a question you want answered." We didn't have a question that needed answering until seeing results from Explore testing...then we had an IQ test done with the university (so it was more affordable). Testing doesn't change the child in any way. It has given me more information so I've been working at changing the way I interact with my son. I'm seeing a bit better how to challenge him. I've got a bit more information on where his strengths are and more info on what his capabilities are. I still work at recognizing when I need to push and when I need to back off. (Is it an issue of him not understanding something or is it an issue of him not focusing?) It sounds like you have a question. I'd get testing done. There's nothing to lose with it. I do understand earlier posters concerns about labeling... but a label isn't an identity... and it can help with explanations. I'm also almost always in favor of more information :) Best of luck!

I thought with the changes to health care, kids can stay on parent insurance until 26 regardless of educational standings. I could be wrong... and it may change again... Based on a couple of conversations, we're back to continuing to 6th grade next year, then probably repeating 6th. It is nice not to be in this boat alone though! :)

I have appreciated the information people post who did homeschool but still hang around :) Please don't go.... despite milovany's nastiness ;)