Here is a good thread where Mr. D himself describes how he wrote the curriculum and the curriculums he referenced when writing it. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/636151-mr-d-math/ We are going to use it for pre-algebra this year and maybe geometry too. I feel that it will have more rigor than TT. Angela

We are considering using the SWB History of the World series for our small co-op this fall. If you use this, how do you do it? We would have three years of world history, but what about American history and government/economics? Is there enough geography over the three years to be able to give a credit, or maybe 1/2 credit for the three combined? I would love to hear how others approach history and how you assign credits for high school. My oldest will be in 9th next year and this is new territory for me! 😳 Thanks! Angela

I posted a question about a year ago about using Khan as a core curriculum along with Zacarro Algebra Problem Solving for pre-algebra. Here I am a year later with a similar question. My daughter used the above combo for pre algebra last year in 7th grade. It seemed to be working well, other than there not being detailed enough solutions in the Zacarro book, until half way through the year when she panicked that Khan might not be covering everything she needed to know. Since there wasn't a preset lesson each day, she didn't have confidence that she was doing enough. We jumped ship and purchased Saxon algebra 1/2. She did only tests until she came upon things she was uncertain about and then did the lessons to correspond to those topics. Neither of us liked Saxon though, and towards the end of the year, I purchased VideoText Algebra. They suggest you always start with the pre algebra portion and cover all of their material to complete all the way through algebra 2. She is nearly through Module A, which is roughly equivalent to pre algebra and wants to find something else to stick with through high school. The explanations don't make as much sense to her as Khan, which worries her for what it will be like when she reaches more difficult material. And the many pieces to the curriculum make it hard for her to face every day. She is begging to go back to Khan Academy. She enjoys the videos in Khan and the way things are presented. She likes puzzling through the problems and using the hints and videos when necessary. She even enjoys watching more advanced topics for fun. She just plain likes Khan even though she doesn't like computers or videos that much in general. The general consensus around here though seems to be that Khan alone is not enough. Is there an inexpensive resource we could put with it to add problems, and more particularly to have some sort of assessment so she can be certain she thoroughly understands each topic before moving on? Unfortunately I am no help since I have forgotten over the years all the algebra knowledge I once possessed. She needs to be fairly independent. Her preference would to have Khan be her core with the other resource as the supplement rather than plugging through a textbook and using Khan for the video explanations. Is this possible? I don't want her to be lacking in anything, but I need to find something that works for her that is inexpensive, but can be used mostly independently. I had hoped Videotext would be the answer for us. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

I posted a question about a year ago about using Khan as a core curriculum along with Zacarro Algebra Problem Solving for pre-algebra. Here I am a year later with a similar question. My daughter used the above combo for pre algebra last year in 7th grade. It seemed to be working well, other than there not being detailed enough solutions in the Zacarro book, until half way through the year when she panicked that Khan might not be covering everything she needed to know. Since there wasn't a preset lesson each day, she didn't have confidence that she was doing enough. We jumped ship and purchased Saxon algebra 1/2. She did only tests until she came upon things she was uncertain about and then did the lessons to correspond to those topics. Neither of us liked Saxon though, and towards the end of the year, I purchased VideoText Algebra. They suggest you always start with the pre algebra portion and cover all of their material to complete all the way through algebra 2. She is nearly through Module A, which is roughly equivalent to pre algebra and wants to find something else to stick with through high school. The explanations don't make as much sense to her as Khan, which worries her for what it will be like when she reaches more difficult material. And the many pieces to the curriculum make it hard for her to face every day. She is begging to go back to Khan Academy. She enjoys the videos in Khan and the way things are presented. She likes puzzling through the problems and using the hints and videos when necessary. She even enjoys watching more advanced topics for fun. She just plain likes Khan even though she doesn't like computers or videos that much in general. The general consensus around here though seems to be that Khan alone is not enough. Is there an inexpensive resource we could put with it to add problems, and more particularly to have some sort of assessment so she can be certain she thoroughly understands each topic before moving on? Unfortunately I am no help since I have forgotten over the years all the algebra knowledge I once possessed. She needs to be fairly independent. Her preference would to have Khan be her core with the other resource as the supplement rather than plugging through a textbook and using Khan for the video explanations. Is this possible? I don't want her to be lacking in anything, but I need to find something that works for her that is inexpensive, but can be used mostly independently. I had hoped Videotext would be the answer for us. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

Bumping...I am also considering Spanish For You. I am hoping someone else may have used it. 😊

Thank you!

I am needing advice on how to proceed with writing for my daughter who will be in 8th grade this fall. She did 1/2 of Cover Story and then Time Capsule through Attune Up in 6th grade. This year for 7th grade we did CC, so she will have completed Lost Tools of Writing 1 as well as misc. science reports. I really don't know where to go from here. I ordered WWS for my 6th grader to start after doing IEW SWI B this year. It looks very good, but I am wondering if it is too incremental or slow for my 8th grader. She wouldn't complete the course until 10th grade at one level per year. I like that it is taught to the student though. Has anyone used WWS at a faster pace? Is there another curriculum I should look at? Writing is not my forte so I need something clear and easy to follow like WWS looks to be. Budget is a factor, so I am not looking at online classes this year. Thanks in advance for any advice. Angela

Sorry about the delay. I responded to your post on my phone, but it apparently didn't work. We used the Khan Academy/Zacarro combo for the 1st half of the school year. My daughter liked parts of it, but we decided to go a different direction for the second semester. She did like Khan, except she felt the need for more structure. Without having a specified amount of work to cover each day (one lesson a day etc.), she always wondered if she was covering enough. Her progress showed more than 50% of pre-algebra completed and some algebra topics, but she still just wasn't comfortable. The only problem with Zacarro is that it didn't always provide a detailed solution for every problem. It was frustrating to get stuck on one of the more challenging problems and not be able to figure out how they came up with the answer. She didn't want me to sell the book, however! lol She will still probably do a little bit of it here and there. We decided to try Videotext algebra. My daughter enjoys learning the "whys" behind everything, and I am hoping Videotext will be a good fit. I did feel that Khan/Zacarro was a good combination, but wanted my daughter to feel confident that she didn't have any gaps and that she wasn't "missing" something. In our case, it may have been more a personality issue than the curriculum not being sufficient or through. Angela

Hmm...my daughter enjoyed Zacarro but was frustrated with parts because the solution was NOT always provided.

My daughter, who is doing Ch A this year, is usually done by lunch time. (3-4 hours) Granted, she is a very focused and fast worker. She just starts right when she gets up and doesn't stop until she is done. This is how she prefers to do it. Another student in her class said that she finishes around that time also, while another student works into the evening. So I would say that it is very possible to finish in much less than an hour a strand, but it can take that long for some students. I hope this helps. :)

Yes, thank you! I messed around with Alcumus once, but it started out very simple, and I didn't take the time to really see what it had to offer. I will spend more time investigating. 😊 Thanks!

It seems to me the consensus around here is that Khan Academy is just not enough for a core math curriculum. This is exactly what my daughter would like to use for pre-algebra though. This year she completed MM 6 through the last chapter and then used Khan Academy for the teaching part of that chapter before completing the MM chapter review and test. She is pretty motivated and does well with math in general, though she found some of the MM explanations to be confusing. She really enjoys Khan Academy. Sometimes she uses the videos and sometimes just the hints to learn how to do the problems. It really seems to click for her and does provide some review with the mastery challenges. I am a little concerned about a lack of problem solving practice/conceptual understanding. If I added Zacarro Real World Algebra to Khan, would it be enough? Has anyone tried this? If I could use a program she really likes, that would be nice! Thanks! Angela

I was going to post this exact question today. 😊 My daughter is nearly done with MM6. She covered the entire last chapter by finding the topics on Khan and practicing there instead. I will have her take the MM chapter and year end tests to make sure she "got" it, but she really likes Khan. She enjoys tackling the problem and then figuring out how to do it either by going back to the video or using the hints when she get's stuck. I was wondering if anyone has ever used it as their core curriculum and if it just needed some supplementing, what they used to accomplish that. Hoping this "bump" will bring more posts.....

Yes, thank you!

My 11 yo daughter is also taking this class. :-) Angela

My 3rd and 5th grade dds tried the free trial and found it to be helpful. It isn't animated like T4Learning, but it is a lot cheaper. You really can get most of the functionality with the free version. And if you do the free trial, your kids start with the placement test. It then assigns them the topics they had a hard time with on the test. Definitely worth trying, in my opinion. My dd will use it this fall as a supplement.

I just purchased Cover Story from Homeschool Buyers Co-op. I am excited. My 6th grade dd loves to write, and I am hoping this will be a big hit. I am adding grammar, vocabulary, and reading to it. Plus it isn't supposed to take 36 weeks to complete, so I will be adding other writing. If anyone has comments or advice about the curriculum, I'd love to hear them! Angela

I too would love to find a schedule for this. Anyone? I may just wing it. The Rome and Greece ones will be easy, but the Holy Land ones seem like they might be a little more difficult to line up. I am still waiting on my MOH book though. It might not be so hard with a table of contents in front of me. :-)

We already sent in our group info. There was another group forming that started just after ours ended. Maybe you can try theirs. I think that this is the thread. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=421573&highlight=Vp+group You could also try the Veritas Press Yahoo Group. I saw a post the other day on there about a group forming. I hope that you find a group. You have until the end of the month. Angela

There are quizzes, tests and flashcards on the Elementary Apologia Yahoo Group. They have lots of files and actually started an overflow group where they moved some of the files since they had so many. I think that the tests and quizzes are in the overflow group. I hope that this link works for you. if not, just search the Yahoo groups page and you can get to it that way. :001_smile: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Elem_Apologia_Science_Files/?yguid=212786516 Angela

Just a heads up for everybody. Don't wait until the last minute to register. I registered last Friday and am still waiting on my login. I called to make sure that everything was ok since it showed that I would start yesterday on my registration and I still hadn't heard anything from them. The lady said that they are behind from the holiday and are just really busy with lots of new registrations. We will be starting at least a week later than I had anticipated. So if you are waiting until a certain date to register, keep in mind that it may take them longer than usual to process your information since they are so busy. Angela

I think that I found it. Here it is: http://http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=421573&highlight=Vp+group Angela

Sorry, I already sent our info in. I saw a few days ago that someone else was starting another group. Maybe do a search and see if you can find them. I am sure that they would be happy for you to join their group. :) Angela

Here's a bump. :001_smile:

You are welcome. :001_smile: It was a wonderful blessing for us too! Thanks to all who participated. I hope that you enjoy your courses and have a great year! Angela