I purchased the material for Intermediate Algebra and noticed that it seems to cover much of the same material as in beginning algebra. Can someone explain if this is typical for most algebra 2 high school courses? My son is going into 9th this year and completed to the middle of chapter 5 of beginning algebra (Lials). The person who will be tutoring him this year would like him to finish through ch. 6 this summer. After that, the choice is to move into the intermediate algebra book, or join his brother in MUS alg. 2. The tutor is a MUS user and teaches it in co-op classes, but will use Lials for my 9th grade if we choose. My 11th grader used MUS since pre-algebra. It took two years to get through algebra 1, primarily due to a lack of accountability and my not being a math person. He did MUS geometry last semester. We were planning to put him in MUS algebra with the tutor mentioned above. He has probably forgotten much of algebra 1 concepts so I'm having him review this summer. Any thought on this decision? Wendy

My 8th grader is on strike. There has been a slow deterioration in his mood regarding school since December to the point where he didn't do anything a couple weeks ago. He's frustrated with me regarding math(I'm slow) and doesn't see the point in the rest of the subjects since they'll make him do them all over again anyway if he goes to college (or high school for that matter). Yes there is a certain level of depression here, so I have not seriously put down my food and locked him in his room. He is brighter than average and shines in the area of analysis of situations. He's very principled, yet following his principles will cause him grief and alienation since society often doesn't think like him (or maybe they do but don't bother to try to change things). He will not willingly and happily do school just because I say so at this point. Over the last week he has done 1/2 to 3/4 of his assignments. He will. It add Latin back in,however. He doesn't see the point in it and argues that is doesn't count as a foreign language credit now anyway, so why point him through it when he still has to do two or three years more anyway. Of course I've given all the reasons for doing it but do far he's adamant( even looked up requirements at the catholic high to see if they make 8th graders take a language). What should I do? He doesn't care if I take away his computer or knitting project (he knitted 2 16foot long dr who scarves and is working on another). Other than that he's reading War and Peace, which seems like a strange thing to take away from a noncompliant teen Thoughts? Wendy

I sent my son in to work on math the last couple weeks without my oversight because I've been recovering from surgery. He told me that his new geometry course (Jacobs 2nd edition) is boring and not even math. I finally sat down with it and I understand what Jacobs is getting at (logic etc)with the first chapter, although I'm personally not interested in it and do find it more boring than working an algebra problem. I can totally understand why my son said what he did, since he's a "show me the formula and tell menhow to use it" guy. Does he need this first chapter or can it be skipped????

I would just assign it ad see how it goes. Personally I love Steinbeck. My son read Of Mice and Men in 7th and Grapes of Wrath in 9th and clearly enjoyed both. They were among the few books he actually maintained a discussion about. He isn't a big reader unless it's fantasy type stuff like books like LOTR, Eragon, Hunger Games but he really, really did enjoy steinbeck. I think it is because he has a tender spot and like many teens today is concerned with justice and fairness. Grapes os Wrath is one ofthe most important American novels. There are some (by today's standards mild) curse words, but IMHO by the time they are in high school they should be ready for a challenge in the subject matter they read. It is really difficult to find high school level material that will challenge them that does not contain language representative of the people the story deplicts. My kids know we don't talk like that, and that most educated people don't talk like that, but of coursethey know it exists and I can't shield them forever As far as the movie, my son and the group or kids that read and discussed the book with him found of sorely lacking compared to the blol. Plot elements were changed and sequence of events reversed Read the book!!!!!

We have the and I am using them with my 8th grader. The 11tb grader is watching the video series on Annenberg Media called the Western Tradition which are fabulous and have much more content than the tc high school program. And content on Annenberg if free!

I'll add that the first time I saw the professional touring company, I cried through the entire last scene. I was riveted and had to return to the theater the next night to see it again. I took my boys to Dallas to see the last performance in Dallas of the last tour (when we didn't know when we would ever be able to see it live again). Randal Keith was with the tour for years as ValJean and was said by the associate director to be one of the best. Many of you probably saw him. Even after hearing the music that many times, it still has the ability to move me. It has inspired us to watch the video with Liam Neeson and all of us to read the full-length unabridged book. This is by far one of the best novels you can have your kids read and discuss! The musical does an admirable job of telling the story also and there are study guides on the UK site that look pretty good http://www.lesmis.com/london-uk/education Even with the bawdy scene, I would not hesitate to bring a young person to the show or let them listen to the music. Most kids understand, with a little explaination, that what is going on in that scene is not admirable behavior and, as my good friend told her car-Les Miz-singing kids: you will not repeat THAT particular word outside of that song. Most of it goes right over their head anyway.

♫♪Will you join in our crusade? Will you be strong and stand with me...♪♫♪ We've have been listening to and singing this sound track since my boys were 6 and 10. Last year my oldest, at age 15, played Javert and my youngest Thenadie in a community theater's youth production. Here's Michael as Javert: He has done at least 20 shows since the age of 6, directed a few, sung with the FW Opera chorus, and this was the only show that made him so sad to see end that he cried.

Have those of you wishing to use Miller/Levine considered ordering the lesson plans through Kolbe Academy? You can purchase just the plans and I believe this will give you access to the other materials, but you would need to check on this....you may also need to enroll for just that course or buy the book/answer key pack. Kolbe is very flexible in this regard and they are still using the Dragonfly book, which can be found for a better price than the new one, although that may change in a couple years. I visited with an academic adviser at a bookfair yesterday who said she likes the newer book better and is wanting to change the lesson plans.

We did not, but I have both. The Apologia took 30 -60 minutes a day as it was (not counting co-op day). We skipped the evolution chapter in Apologia and went only with Miller for that one. I will used only Miller with my next 9th grader and my purchase the Kolbe lesson plans and tests.

We aren't using LOF for our main text, but still, I'm curious to know why you don't agree with the author? What else would they need to know to begin the fractions book? Ditto with beginning the Algebra 1 book. My son is working through the pre-algebra books and there are no new basic math skills covered that were not in the fractions and decimals books. The economics book is getting into a little preliminary algebra, but it's covered again in algebra 1. I kept waiting for LOF to get to signed numbers in pre-algebra, but I don't think it is going to. However, it is at the beginning of the Algebra book. As far as the topics that are covered in a typical pre-algebra course which are not covered in LOF, do they need these for algebra anyway???? Geometry is covered in pre-algebra in ps books, MUS, and Lial, but it isn't in my son's MUS algebra course. I think this is why the geometry is at the end of the school year. If they don't get to it they can still begin algebra the next year.

A simple grading system in which tests count for the majority of the final grade does seem to be the norm in college, but in high school grades seem to be calculated on a different formula. Actually, one can't say what that formula is because grades seems to be calculated differently at different schools and even differently among teachers of the same subject in the same school. Take math for instance. My son generally makes B's on his Lials basic college math tests, but he gets only 0-4 wrong on his homework. With working one lesson or problems set a day, tests come up about every 4-6 weeks. He works diligently, completely all the problems. Should his grade be a low A or a B? I surveyed the grades system of our local schools and found that they add homework into the calculation. Most of the teachers grade homework as complete or incomplete (it wouldn't be fair to mark off for incorrect problems while your practicing). Homework counts for as much as 40% of the grade. So that pulls my son up to an A. I personally believe that there are not enough questions on an Apologia test. I haven't looked at chemistry specifically, but I did find this to be true with General Science and Biology. After memorizing 15 definitions they are tested on 4????? After studying an entire module there are only as few as 12 questions? I compared this to an average biology test given in a high school class and found the the tests they give cover much more of the material: more definitions, more labeling, more questions, more essays. I suppose you could argue that if you miss two Apologia questions, you aren't an A student, but, gosh, are you ever penalized for those two when if they had asked five more on another topic you could have gotten an A!!! For this reason I actually added to the Apologia tests so that I was testing on more material. I felt this was fairer, especially on the definition part. Curving up is also an option, as well as adding an oral test to probe the student for understanding of the unit. Just my thoughts and one of the things I don't like about Apologia.

What is a good workbook to supplement Spanish? I seen the Spanish Now workbook by Barron's at resale stores, but there is no answer key. Seton homestudy uses this workbook, and includes their answer key. Is this a good workbook to use with the Seton key, or is it just the same to buy it new with the publishes key......or is there something better? We are using RS, and I think we will try the Pimsleur cd's also.

I just remembered. There are audio resources on the website which might be beneficial in general, and beneficial to uses of IEW specifically.

At the risk of offending the IEW "community", of which I am a part, I'd go out on a wire here and say that high school is a perfect time to BEGIN IEW, as opposed to beginning earlier. Here's why: IEW is a program that teaches style. If a student can not put sentences together well, IEW is not going to teach him. If a young student already enjoys writing, then he is ready for IEW. Go ahead and order level A (for elementary). But if not, wait until their older. If they are balking at writing a simple journal entry or book report they are going to hate the checklist. That said, the strength of IEW for a young student is it takes the "what to write" about out of the equation....brillant! What IEW can do for a high school student who already knows about sentence structure and paragraph writing is teach elements of style that take plain vanilla writing to a much high level. In the later units of the basic course, the tips on report writing are wonderful and highly useful. I started IEW with my kids when they were in 6th and 8th grade. They both enjoy watching the videos and love listening to Andrew. My 6th grader hates writing, though he is a natural. I had to slow down and stop with him(level B). We tried the American History Writing 1 this year instead because it is less demanding, but he hates history so we've decided to just write reports the rest of the year and pick it back up with student writing intensive C in the fall. My high-schooler has had no problems with any writing assignment because he likes to write. This year his writing has improved tremendously since I have be requiring EVERYTHING on the checklists. I chuckle at the persons post regarding the student who was told their paper was good, but they didn't include all the checklist items. This was discussed on the Yahoo Group and I learned that the reason for requiring every item is so that the student get practice in using all the components of style. Naturally they won't use all of them in every paragraph in all their writing at some point. There have been times when I've let a missing item go in an IEW assignment because I couldn't think of how to add it. Remember that TWSS was designed as a workshop and the student writing intesive as a three day workshop for the student. You can take as much or as little time as needed to get through the material. Then utilize whatever other IEW program you wish to for the remainer of the highschool time. We are currently using Elegant Essay and Windows to the World with my 10th grader, and will pick up SWI continuation course level C next year. I'd also like to get the essay intensive at some point. Hope this helps.

I t would be on your lesson plans (free to download from the site or the yahoo group if you don't have them) if it were included. Each level has a little more content and right now I'm thinking that this is a topic not covered in B.

In fact, after having used IEW with my teen, I now note the elements of style as I am reading a book or magazine article. For a good exercise when your kids are complaining about having to use them, pull out a novel, photocopy a page, and mark it as you would an IEW assignment. All of the techiques will be used at least once, and most twice within two normal sized paragraphs of text (with the exception of the triple extensions and perhaps the very short sentences). I was reading Amy Tans' Joy Luck Club out loud to the boys and had to pause and point out the use of three staccato sentences followed by a triple extention. Good stuff to know and the price isn't that high when you consider what you get for it. I think the hard part is starting with a young child or preteen and not seeing what the end result is going to be. As the kids are learning it, especially if they are young, the results do seem unnatural. At that age you just let it go because they are still developing as writers. When they mature with the ideas and read better literature, everything comes together.

Taking notes from a live lecture was one I particularly liked. But I also liked the one on taking notes from books.

Likes: Specific goals for each assignment, which keeps me from ripping apart my kids papers (I was a writing tutor in college, so am fairly comfortable teaching writing at a high school level) Uses accessible language for what would otherwise be higher level grammar concepts. Teaches varied sentence openers (Andrew's right. Most kids start every sentence with subject openers) The way Andrew teaches the five paragraph essay and super essay The "Suzuki" approach. If you have any experience with the Suzuki music instructional methodology you know what I mean (Andrew was a Suzuki violin teacher) Not having to hear "I don't know what to write about", unless you (as teacher) decide to give the student a choice. The checklists You can use these composition techniques across the curriculum, so that once your child has learned some of them, you can then require their use in writing for other subjects. The student isn't asked to write about his/her feelings, friends, pets, family, or to provide a plot. Even the story writing utilizes a model, so if your child freezes at having to provide characters and a plot, you can still use this program and not skip that unit (mine never revisited the story writing unit because he prefers report writing). I can resell it for 95% of what I paid. Andrew. My kids LOVE Andrew. They quote him. They give knowing nods to their peers when they find out he/she also uses IEW. Dislikes: If it isn't a good day, or week, to watch the video you'll feel on hold (one way around this is to repeat the last assignment with a different source material) Having to fit in all the dress-ups and openers in every paragraph.(I complained about this on the IEW Yahoo forum and was told to stick with the program for the most part. I did and my teen's writing turned a corner. If there is no way to put one of them in, I don't count off, but in a paragraph of at least five or six sentences it is entirely possible to use almost all dress-ups and openers in every paragraph and the paper DOES NOT sound formuliac. So this is a contradictory statement. I dislike it because it's hard and sometimes impossible, but have seen that, in the end, the writing is improved) Key Word Outlines. I understand that they are to be limited to three words, but I'm not sure I'd remember what my notes were on if I sat it aside for a few days. My boys don't have problems with it, however, and have begun to take their lecture notes this way. Oh, btw, I love the lecture on notetaking! Very Short Sentences. I think one a paragraph is too much for this particular technique. Ha, the things I don't like I don't like because they are sometimes difficult! Human nature! Okay, I like IEW 96% (I'm subtracting 4% because of my disagreement with having to use all checklist items for every paragraph, but even the forum ladies said to use my discretion)

"I also purchased McGraw Hill's Anatomy & Physiology Revealed. It's the first link above. Has great views of human body disections, along with quizzes and additional videos. I highly recommend this one. Warning - not for the squeamish. " Did you purchase on the website? I see website access for $35. Is that the correct one?

We are using an older edition and I really like it. I can't remember which edition, but it has the lute playing women on the cover (combined edition). I find the text thorough and interesting. However, I do not have test banks so am making my own assessments, which means I have to study the material to be sure my son's essay questions are answered in a reasonable way. I purchased the text used for $14. We do you the companion site a little.

Is chemistry necessary? If my son does it, I am leaning toward Conceptual Chemisty, due to the fact that he doesn't shine in math. I had him read the sample on line and he said he just isn't interested in Chemistry. He is interested in Anatomy (he enjoyed Apologia Biology last year. This year we are doing chapters out of an environmental science book). He will be in 11th grade next year. So if we don't do Chemistry, he will never get it. Or he will never get physics. I'll add that he is probably not going to major in science and math but will likely get a scholarship for voice or acting (very talented).

Isn't it funny how this is still such a hotly contested topic???

David Blight's Civil War class on Yale open university. He's a leading scholar on the war and the lectures are wonderful. Either listen to the mp3 or view the video. FREE!

Jann, When I type in the isbn for the teacher's edition, it doesn't say "teacher's edition" on any of the sites I've tried shopping from. Does the TE have the answers for the even problems? I'd only want it if it does, since I'd like to have more practice problems available with answers.

What is the student solutions? Do they show how the problems are worked out?