www.superchargedscience.com Lessons are on the internet, experiments are bought at the beginning of the year and have an internet video to show the kids exactly how to perform them. Not cheap though.

Your daughter sounds like my son who has ADD, especially the part about the handwriting and the fiddling around and calling it "doing homework." Public school won't recommend testing for ADD until she's two years behind grade level. You can get the test (it's called a psycho-educational evaluation) privately from a mental health provider for about $800 (not covered by insurance). A third grader is old enough to diagnose. If you are absolutely sure you don't want her on the medicine, there's probably no reason to test her, unless you want an 504 plan from the school that would give her more time on tests plus the other accommodations the psych. recommends. I can vouch that homework time and the handwriting problem are vastly improved with the medicine. Organizational skills are not, so it wouldn't hurt to try teaching it to her. Something you could try right now is the Feingold diet for ADD, see if it would improve her symptoms enough to get by. Give it a three week trial to judge if it is working. My plan for homework: find out from the teacher how long it should take her to complete it. Clean off your kitchen table completely. Set a timer for 15 min. Take away all toys and fidgets. Sit beside her to help her and when she spaces out, tap the book and say something like, "We're on number two." Don't get frustrated and fussy with her. Very gently re-direct her attention as many times as necessary. When the time is up, find a physical chore for her to do, for instance, take out all the trash, pick up dirty clothes and sort them, take a bath, make tomorrow's lunch, sharpen the pencils, have a snack. Don't let her play during the breaks, and don't let her play video games at all until the homework is completed. When she's finished with her chore, start the timer for another 15 min. If you're homeschooling, get very structured. Set timers for each class period. Online-stopwatch.com is a great resource for making a timed schedule. Check out the interval timer on that site. That way you will cover all subjects in spite of the dawdling. Anything not completed in the class period becomes homework. Good luck!

Seton is accredited and in your price range, but I don't think there are video lectures. I believe the parent has to teach the classes, which the two of you might really appreciate right now. I did an out-of-the-box curriculum that *I* taught for 3 years and my son really liked it. FWIW, my kids went to PS for a year and I heard all about what I hadn't taught that I should have :) You could try Abeka one more year just to see if this is an adjustment year for high school work loads. I personally would drop it. Have you seen Clonlara School (www.clonlara.org) It's secular, accredited, and in your price range. From the mission statement: "Their vision was to create a school where children of all creeds, races and ages would learn and grow in an unhurried, relaxed atmosphere" You pay $1200 for teacher oversight of your materials and plan, all the books and curriculum is extra. I agree with Sebastian that $1000 total is unrealistic for an accredited school. Sign her up for theater, chorus, or band. Kids in those extra-curriculars form really close friendships. Make up the missed days in the summer months. Theater would be my number one priority.

My son is not gifted and is doing well in AoPS online classes. There is really no way to know ahead of time. Just buy the Prealgebra books, sign up for the online Alcumus computer program, and give it a try. You'll have to prep her by explaining the inquiry approach. She's not expected to get the right answers, just think deeply for about 10 min. per problem and try some stuff to solve it. She must read the complete solution, every problem, every time. As far as I can tell, there is very little repetition, but many, many problems (as many as you want) that riff on the theme of the week. The online classes have no grades, so it's kind of a white-knuckle ride for me since I don't have empirical data about how he's doing. I do know that Alcumus will bump his rating down if he forgets how to do something he had previously passed. I have had him signed up with a subscription to MathScore.com for 2 years, which has served as our drill, and has been our primary resource for any skill that AoPS requires that he hasn't yet mastered. It's sort of like Kumon, but cheaper and completely computerized. When he was given one week in AoPS to learn to solve complex problems that involved trinomial factorization, he had already factored close to 300 of them in MathScore and was able to handle the AoPS assignment much easier. Since she had trouble with Saxon, this sort of supplement might be helpful. Her biggest problem with AoPS will probably be her low frustration tolerance.

I'm trying to find out how these classes are run. My son will be off at camp for 3 weeks. Could he catch up on his own time and pass? Or do they have strict deadlines for each assignment?

My son had that same problem. He is now in middle school. His penmanship is still poor compared to others his age, but has improved steadily and is mostly legible. He also does a lot of his school work on the computer. First make sure she knows the basics: can match capital to lower-case, knows the rules about capitalization (personal pronoun I, beginning of a sentence, names), which letters drop below the line, and rise above the dotted line. Make sure she grips the pencil properly. The best pencil grip is the Grotto pencil grip. My son used one on every pencil for about two months. Yes, his penmanship was worse using it, and his hand fatigued quickly, but when I took them off, he had a perfect tripod grip reflexively. Still does years later. Check this YouTube channel for a video called How I Fixed My Dysgraphia. I found it helpful. http://www.youtube.com/channel/HCfSaoZRAa32I Also, picking up paper and balling it up using only one hand at a time will strengthen the hand -- especially computer paper -- and the strength will translate into more dexterity. Try it yourself and you'll see. I haven't tried this, but I'm thinking I might. Copywork! It teaches penmanship as well as grammar usage. Pick a variety of good stuff because it's boring. Shel Silverstein was always a winner at my house, but be sure to switch it up. And buy her a nice pen she really likes. I would suggest you consider italic cursive. It is just easier and faster to write. I really liked Jim Bennett's program because the lessons are all hand written by him. http://www.studioarts.net/calligraphy/italic/curriculum.html My son found it discouraging to be expected to "write like a machine," so this program was our answer. To make sure he could read traditional cursive, everything I write in school (notes, directions, examples) is in traditional cursive.

Christina, what brand did you buy? I've been looking for the same thing (an e-book reader, and not a web-browser, game player, etc.) and all I've found is the Ectaco jetBook Color for about $500!

That is my question too! How does it work? Great Books Academy looks to be just like Angelicum. What is the difference? How does it work? Do you get any guidence in reading these difficult books? As far as I can tell, the lesson plan for the Great Books class is a $10 packet of book report forms. I'm not sure that will be sufficient guidance for me. I don't have the time to read literary criticism and write my own lecture for every book we read.

If you were attracted to Singapore, you might look at Math Mammoth. It is much easier to teach and much, much cheaper, but it has the same high educational content. It was written by a Finnish math teacher. MUS is much easier than Singapore. I think you'd be safe to just quit the Singapore and switch.

I second Timez Attack. It is a flashcard replacement game that builds rote memorization for all basic facts, not just multiplication. After my dd had passed the times-2s, I had her switch to MathScore.com to drill them. After passing that level in MathScore, switch back to Timez Attack to memorize the times-3s, and so on, back and forth. MathScore drills ALL the facts she knows simultaneously -- built-in review -- so I think that helped. And when she forgets them, MathScore will drop her level so she can review. In three months she made two years progress on those multiplication facts during the summer between 3rd and 4th grades, and she was a tough case, trust me! (She came out of a year of Rod and Staff math knowing NO facts at all.) This method is just computerized flashcards followed by drill sheets (which is what you are doing), and it's what I had previously been doing too. I don't know if the computer was the game changer, or if she was just more mature at that point and the new format freed her from any negative associations she might have formed before. Take a page from Kumon. Work on it every day: Christmas, birthdays, Sundays. Every. Single. Day. Twenty min. isn't really so much to ask out of a 14 hour day.

OK, perhaps you need some more explanation. My son hates, hates, HATES to write. So I told him that if he didn't want to really work hard at writing, he'd better be really good at math. I hired a private tutor to work with him, at (this isn't spam, either) a dollar a minute. After $60 worth of assessment, he told me that my son needed more drill since he wasn't able to skip steps in his calculations. And that his math books (standards-aligned) didn't contain enough of it. No surprise there, NONE of them do. The only one that does have enough drill is Rod and Staff, but it isn't a college-preparatory curriculum. At the same time I'm dealing with that, I have a daughter who cannot seem to memorize any math facts, even after spending first grade in R&S. I sent her to public school for 2nd, since my husband believed her lack of success was due to my bad teaching. (Have you stopped laughing yet? Caught your breath?) Of course it didn't help at all, but Dad had to see it for himself. I began using a computer program called Timez Attack with her, and it seemed to work, but she kept forgetting the facts she had learned. Then, I found MathScore.com and using it did cement the facts. We were using BOTH of these programs with my daughter (back and forth between them) when the private tutor told my son he needed more drill. So, I paid my son $20 to finish Timez Attack to make sure that he did know his facts. And then I assigned MathScore.com to him in addition to the specific drills his math tutor recommended, with the idea that what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Yeah, he hated it. He considered it infantile and beneath his dignity, mainly because he knew his sister sucked at math and he didn't. I signed him up for the homeschool math club, and drove him 40 min. one way every Monday. I didn't know it at the time, but they were practicing for the MathCounts competition. All I knew was that the kids who are good at math back when I was in school all joined the math club, so he was going to join it, too. Turned out that he enjoyed that kind of thing. We took numerous MathCounts problems to the tutor, since I couldn't solve them, and neither could my husband. Nor could the Math Lab at the local community college! The tutor said that this is what today's kids needed to study BIG TIME. Problem solving was the key. I asked him what books I should buy, and he said that problem solving wasn't found in a book! I took that as a personal challenge, and found AoPS, thanks to the Well-Trained Mind forums and Google. I brought it in to the tutor, and at a dollar a minute (not spam, just the truth) he looked it over and pronounced it rock solid. Only problem was, DS's standards-aligned 6th grade math book, Calvert Math, hadn't taught him calculations with integers yet (a prerequisite for AoPS Prealgebra). I checked out a book called Integers by Irving Adler from the library, which was excellent, very well done. But my son wouldn't study it since it required the use of manipulatives, which apparently are also infantile and beneath his dignity. MathScore to the rescue! I told him to find every integer topic in MathScore and pass it, even if it's not listed in 6th grade (you can do that in MathScore). In two weeks he had passed them all, and we began AoPS. I suppose I could've bribed him with another $20 to get through the book from the library, but I didn't, and MathScore was probably faster anyway. He has been using MathScore for about 9 months at this point and has finished all of 6th and 7th grade topics, and some of 8th and 9th too. AoPS has been highly motivating for him with respect to his MathScore work. My posts are not spam. I really am a homeschooling mother. I really have used these programs: Timez Attack, MathScore.com, and AoPS Prealgebra. The first two remediated a struggling math student and took her to above grade level (with respect to timed drills) in 9 months (not spam, just the facts). And the last two allowed me to push the math while simultaneously relaxing with my essay-hating son, and letting the IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) program take as long as it needs to (much slower than I had in school). Not spam, just an honest review of products that have worked well for me. Speaking of which, this past month I have seen a fantastic change for the better in my son's writing. Two years of IEW seem to have broken through some blockage. Should I comment on that happy fact on these boards, or would that be perceived as spam as well?

Timez Attack helped my student memorize the facts painlessly. Her assignment was to work with the program until it told her to rest. When she finally beat the "Big Boss", i.e. memorized the times 2 facts plus some of the times 3 facts, we would switch over to working with MathScore.com for drill with the facts. Her assignment with MathScore was to complete drill sheets (worksheet time) for 20 min. a day until she could pass the times 2 level. Once the times 2 level had been passed, she moved back to Timez Attack to memorize the times 3 facts. Working this way, back and forth between the programs, over summer break she made two years of progress on the timed drills that came with her math curriculum! Yes, two years of progress in only three months! I think people who don't have success with Timez Attack must not be following it up with targeted drill. Anything painlessly and quickly attained is also quickly forgotten. Time limits were hard for my student. She would get very nervous and freeze up, then get door-slamming mad. There was a lot of drama going on in my house! But over the course of six or so months, with lots of gentleness and hugs from Mother, she relaxed and learned to deal with the pressure. She even thanked me for making her do it, saying it really helped her by teaching her to deal calmly with time pressure, a valuable skill. Timez Attack now has new programming to teach rote memorization of addition, subtraction, and division facts, too. We bought the full game eventually. The kids marked their progress by what 'world' they had reached. I finally figured out that 'worlds' were important to them, and paid the $60. Timez Attack has fulfilled its purpose for my students, and is now collecting dust; however, MathScore.com is a daily assignment, first thing in the morning. MathScore.com costs about $15 per month and has dramatic discounts for multiple children. It has drill sheets up to Algebra 1 level. I really can't say enough about MathScore.com, but I'll save that for another post. These two programs really saved us from disaster. I will tell you, my student's issues with math were making us, her parents, very concerned. We were considering having her tested for learning disability. She couldn't memorize any facts, even using Rod and Staff for 1st grade math! Two more years in two different math programs saw no change. That's hardcore, folks! She was not the 'typical child' concerning math, not at all. Nine months after starting them, the drama is gone, and she is performing above grade level! We have had fantastic success with these two programs, and I highly recommend them.

My son is studying the Prealgebra book and we supplement with MathScore.com to learn and drill the basics he could get with a regular curriculum. It's very fast to learn and perfect exponents or integers, for instance, with this program. I runs from 2nd grade to 9th and is standards aligned.

Math Mammoth is a good program. I've used the work book on ratios and proportions, and my son asked questions, like, twice. A thorough treatment, very well explained, including some instruction on using the Singapore bar models toward the end. I'd like to suggest you look at MathScore.com It is similar to Kumon with some advantages, not the least of which is the price ($15/mo.) It is geared to teach to the level of your student's ignorance, which means that they don't move up a level until they really can get every question right within the time limit. It also means that if they truly do know the material, that entire topic can be passed with 5 - 10 minutes worth of work. Most topics include higher levels than what is typically required of a student, 'smartypants' levels, if you will. And you can quit a topic in the middle or go as far up in the levels as you want. Work topics in any order, from any grade. MathScore's goal is to prepare a student for algebra and has a handy shortcut guide to the most important topics to master with the "Awards" tab. Students can work for trophies that represent the most important topics for algebra readiness. My daughter made 2 years worth of time gains on her multiplication drill sheet in one summer! First she passed the times 2 level in Timez Attack (a free download), then the times 2 level in MathScore. Back and forth all summer. It absolutely works, I can testify to that. And she was a tough case. She couldn't memorize her facts with Rod and Staff! But if your son could do Singapore, he must have a better math brain than my girl (and me too :)). My son also has a math brain. He is in 6th grade, and is really enjoying Alcumus at http://www.artofproblemsolving.com It is free and features math contest problems, again, tailored to the level of the student's ignorance. Not too hard, not too easy, and not timed. Every incorrect answer gets a second chance. It has thorough explanations to each problem, and a nifty incentive program that keeps my son striving. But the biggest incentive for him is that the problems are all mixed up: pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, number theory, and probability. You never know what will come up next! I hear that Singapore is like that too. It might pique your son's interest and refresh him after the drudge of Saxon. (But my son also does MathScore, and has found it an invaluable tool for success with Alcumus) If Alcumus is too hard, he could warm up with Abacus Math Contest problems. The website has a (free!) archive of interesting problems geared for 2nd-6th grade. No explanations though.