In most cases, I think the subjects you & others have mentioned are considered subtopics beyond the “big 3” umbrella. So she might take a standard Biology 1 her freshman year, followed by Anatomy & Physiology as a Biology 2-level course (as opposed to Cellular Biology, which is a more typical focus for Bio 2). The same goes, I would think, for a semester of Botany or Equine Science. If you want more than a half credit for Botany, she might need Organic Chemistry or Biochemistry as a prerequisite. Equine Science might involve a number of dissections (lab component) & shadowing

Perhaps take a look at Killgallon Sentence Composing. The activities revolve around mimicking beautiful sentences from literature he would likely be familiar with & the assignments are very clearly structured - you’ve either done what they asked or you haven’t. Then don’t accept work that doesn’t do what the assignment asked. It does little good to move on to composing paragraphs if he can’t (or won’t) compose sentences thoughtfully. He may not yet have the maturity to independently use a student-directed curriculum to gain new skills; perhaps it’s better for now to leave that for rev

He doesn’t play (tends to lose interest mid-game) but is familiar with them. 🙂 I only meant if you’re including multiplication, for example, let’s keep the multiplicand & multiplier to fewer than 3 digits. 2^3 = sqrt 64 = 3! + 2 🤩 258 / 6 = 5! - 77 🤔💭 27,492 x 8^7 = blank / 4,321. 🤯😭

Knights would be perfect, as we’re studying the Middle Ages! 🛡⚔️ Probably no more than double-digit for the parts. Wholes (sums, products, etc) can probably be triple-digit or quadruple-digit but he likes to complete these mentally.

Sure! I’ll take whatever you want to toss this way. The kid loves math puzzles. I should get him back into Sudoku. He liked it for a hot second, but then flitted off to other things.

DS found these before I could even get them off the printer & pleaded to do them in addition to his work in BA because they looked fun. I’d say that’s a win! 😅

The first scenario would be preferable. They can be mixed, too: 2^4 = blank = 4^2 or 4! = 6^2 - blank.

I’m going to single-handedly identify all the things your program cannot yet do 😝

Thanks - I think he’ll really enjoy these! Can you do something that includes factorials?? He got a kick out of those! Or (fairly low) powers like squares & cubes?

1. Has he written paragraphs before? Does he have a firm grasp of what one *is* at this point, or is it still a very new idea? 2. What criteria do you have for a paragraph? My DS8 finds checklists really helpful! For this assignment I might list the number of sentences required per paragraph & remind him to avoid “banned” words (with a list of what those are). Once he had that, I might require active verbs, a clause, or a specific type of figurative language (or offer a list & say “Choose one!”). For his first paragraph, I would have him ask himself “So what?” after his des

My DS8 has a hard time with this, as well. We’ve been using IEW this year, which starts with the idea of a Key Word Outline, then pulling answers to specific questions from the text, & eventually to pulling the main ideas from multiple sources to merge into reports. I’ve started having him summarize his history as well - it was just going in one ear & out the other, despite him actively trying to pay attention. Now I read one paragraph at a time & he writes one sentence about the main idea of each paragraph. By the time we complete each chapter he has about a page of n

Perhaps they’re more intuitive for spatial / geometric thinkers? I found them clunky & over-complicated.

Yeah, I introduced DS to the idea of variables around the same time. He was working through Singapore 2 & getting frustrated with drawing out bar models for everything. We’re both very algebraic thinkers so he grasped it immediately.

Not particularly. We’ve needed more practice on a section or two, but I expect that to happen with any curriculum. It suits us far better than anything else we’ve come across, DS is excited to tackle it, & it means I don’t have to reinvent the wheel - I’m content.

Ugh, I feel you! We spent 4yrs overseas. It was amazing in many ways & I miss it terribly... but I do not miss having to pay full price + exorbitant shipping for curricula. We used to return Stateside once a year & would bring back suitcases full of books, because we could acquire them so cheaply here!