You can probably find what a school is using by looking at their bookstore online and any instructor or departmental syllabi. You can the buy the texts anywhere. The college bookstore is likely going to be the most expensive.

They don't have sample tests. They do provide a brief overview/practice when you register (10 problems from each test). That's available on their site. Math goes prealgebra and below with some algebra, I think. Students can use a calculator, so computation isn't as important as concepts. Sounds like math was extra tough this year as I hear more about it!

I make my son do the explanations. He also gets to hear regularly how my students at the cc make similar errors and how much I take off for those errors :) I think that gives him some motivation! I've also pulled out algebra texts and shown him why finding a common denominator by adding missing factors is essential for working with rational expressions. So he sees where this technique will recur.

We had the scores compared to 8th graders, but we didn't have questions right or any of the stuff other than initial scores. NUMATS had an online comparison, so I was able to see how my son did in comparison to 4th graders who took it through NUMATS. I don't know what the report from Duke will show or whether we'll get comparisons with other 5th graders. For Duke, I don't think they do classes with score qualifications. They do an awards ceremony though. NUMATS and CTY both have score cutoffs for online classes. If you've done an on level test one year, it can be useful to do the same test a grade or two higher the next year if your child is towards the top of the test on level.

My son said math was tougher this year than last. There were some problems he had to guess on. You can take it multiple times. Northwestern sent multiple emails reminding us we could register, but we used Duke this year. Duke TIP really only does the Explore once in 5th grade. Northwestern starts as early as 3rd, I think, and suggests it annually until moving up to SAT.

Although that can also be just which board you're on. If I'm on the high school board, even if I'm talking about a younger child, I expect advice is being given for the high school level.

:grouphug: I think (hope) that as long as we're thinking about what we're doing for our kids & why (being intentional), they'll forgive us when we screw up. We know we're going to be making some (many) mistakes with our son. We do the best we can with the knowledge we have and the abilities/energy/resources we have. If he were in traditional school setting he'd be getting some things I can't give him & he'd have a number of problems he doesn't have at home. We decide that home is best right now for us and for the family. Sometimes I find a pros/cons list helps me make decisions. At the very least it helps me set out options. Good luck figuring out what's best for you at this point in time. It's okay not to have a plan. :grouphug:

The tough part for me isn't the testing... it's the WAITING for the scores. We're testing through Duke's TIP this year (did Northwestern last year). Sounds like Duke is the slowest at getting score reports out. Don't know why....

I agree. The ITBS does give clearer information. I do think the Explore was useful to us last year since it showed that my son can be moving faster than I've been having him progress. It's helped let me lighten up some this year. I made it clear to my son (both last year and this year) that I just want him to do his best. He'll have questions he won't be able to answer or will struggle with, but that's to be expected. He had fun with the challenge and yesterday was saying he was looking forward to today's test. Science is more of a reading test than a test of science knowledge.

That's right... I forgot about that! Also, sounds like they don't have plans to do a HiG for 6 Standards.

My son took it last year at age 9 in 4th grade & is taking it again this year. The reason for taking it is to take an out-of-level test if your kids score towards the top of typical standardized tests. It also can qualify them for summer programs and online courses through Northwestern (NUMATS program) and Duke (TIP). Johns Hopkins has their own program and they want students to take the SCAT rather than the Explore. Starting in 6th or 7th grade, all the talent identification programs move to the SAT or ACT.

I really liked signatures that had that information (and materials used). I found it incredibly helpful the first few years I was on the boards. With the switch to the new boards though, I'm hiding more and more signatures that get too large. So I tossed mine as well. If I post with a question or comment, I'll sometimes include ds's age if I think it's relevant to the question or reply though.

This is the book my son's guitar teacher is having him work from. There's a CD and DVD with this version, although my son isn't using either. :glare:

There is a HiG for the Standards editions. According to the FAQs on singaporemath.com, if you're switching between US and Standards, it's better to do at the end of a level rather than in the middle. So finish 4B US then start 5A standards. I used US for 1A and B, then moved to Standards. It does have more review with a review section in the text and workbook after every chapter. It has additional topics than the US edition as well. The IP books are linked to US, so sometimes when in 5A Standards we were using 5B IP (and vice versa). I'm pleased with Standards. We're actually stopping with Singapore after 5B though. 6 is mostly review (a bit of distance/rate/time word problems that's new). We'll likely be continuing with Elements of Mathematics and maybe some AoPS. There are a lot of threads discussing where people have gone from Singapore. Some have used Singapore books for the high school level as well. I'm very pleased with the foundation my son has from Singapore.

I was lucky in college and got to see him do Christmas Carol. It was amazing!

I've got a couple of 45s here that have that disc in them! White Rabbit & Somebody to Love... really should listen to the LPs again....

Yick.

What answer key? The key at the bottom of a problem to show correct answer? We had a frustrating bit today where one of the diagrams wasn't loading correctly despite refreshing the page. Of course after emailing tech support (and having answered wrong), it showed up correctly on my computer. I have the books, so I'm not quite sure whether we'll be doing integers online after finishing this one up or not. The math in the series is seriously good. In chapter 10, we did group theory (definition of group, abelian groups, rings). It's cool.

That's what I say! Hope you feel better and sorry about your day.

Amazon? ;)

Thanks!

It was a National Geographic series: Alien Deep. Our library had it :) I found it by doing a search for items with Ballard & it came up (as did a fiction book Ballard did with someone else in 92: Bright Shark. Probably not a great book for kids, but my son grabbed it & we've had some interesting discussions as a result. "What's 'herpes'?" "Is 'sonuvabitch' a racist term?" (I really should preread.) The first video was the best. Later ones got on my nerves some (one was set up as an either/or argument on space exploration vs ocean exploration, ignoring that we should be doing both). Unfortunately that episode made me like Ballard a bit less.

You can get the TerraNova from Bayside. They're a former homeschooling family (and my sister's in-laws), so I like recommending them! :)

Bumping again with hopes for comments from OtherJohn. There's also been a thread requesting tagging on the high school board.

Because despite all the people they're harassing, they will get a very small percentage of people who will buy what they're selling, so it's profitable for them. A pox on their houses.