Hello, two years ago my 14 year old sister completed 7th grade at a public school, and then moved to a different country where she was kept behind at 7th grade due to factors out of her control. She's expressed disdain at the math being well below what she's capable of (she called it "painfully simple algebra" when I asked what she was studying). Although it's an English medium school, the country's national language isn't English (hers is) so English is basic as well. She's very smart, even for her age. We're also considering this a "trial run" for homeschooling highschool. I was wondering if you had any recommendations for sources to use for catching her up over the summer. Currently, I'm considering quickly going over Foerster algebra 1 and then starting either AoPS geometry or moving onto Foerster's algebra 2. (I'm not too confident in my ability to teach geometry so we might switch it out for Kiselev vol. 1) For English, I was thinking about using writing strands level 4 or 5 (which?) along with The Best Grammar Workbook Ever. She'd like to start AP Biology this year if possible, so we might go over the important concepts from biology and chemistry along with a crash course in Anki if time permits. Does anyone have any comments or suggestions? Anything helps!

There are many of us here who have kids taking demanding science courses in the Fall. As such, I thought it would be good to list some Summer prep resources. Our son will be taking a fairly intense college chemistry course as dual enrollment this Fall. It will be his first 'demanding' college course as a 10th grader. While he satisfies all the prerequisites, I wanted to give him some Summer prep for it. In doing some research, I found many high quality options. For our down select, I had him begin listening to the lectures form several of these resources - all freely available. His favorite is UC Berkeley's Chem 1A which we are using: Berkeley eChem 101: http://echem1a.cchem.berkeley.edu/ Two part Chemistry course from Rice U: I. https://www.class-central.com/mooc/2375/coursera-introduction-to-chemistry-reactions-and-ratios II. https://www.class-central.com/mooc/2665/coursera-introduction-to-chemistry-structures-and-solutions MIT - Introduction to Solid State Chemistry: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-solid-state-chemistry-mitx-3-091x-3#! Chemistry 1 University of Kentucky: https://www.coursera.org/learn/chemistry-1/home/welcome AP Course prep from Khan Academy: AP Biology AP Calculus AB and BC AP Chemistry AP Physics 1 & 2

I would like to spend the summer doing science with my kids. I just did not have time during the year and feel summer lends itself to doing those messy experiments outside that I don't want to do in the house. What are your all time favorite messy, sparkly, wowza science experiments, kits, projects (such as models, grow a frog etc.) type stuff that the kids will actually enjoy and most importantly LEARN SOMETHING from? Thanks, Faithe

and what subject it was for. If you can, please be specific. I am planning a summer full of hands on fun! I want it to be learning fun...so please include kits (if you found any good ones) models (of anything what-so-ever) art projects, science experiments whatever made you go WOW!!! he kids are going to remember this ALWAYS! I'll share one we did about 2 years ago that my kids always talk about...easy peasy too...for SOTW 2. We made mosaics out of...Graham crackers, peanut utter and mini M&M's. They came out awesome and tasted delicious...and my 6 year old will NEVER forget what a mosaic is...LOL! Please share! ~~Faithe

Dd10 is wondering why we don't do sci experiments, salt maps, coloring things anymore. I used to try to do some of this with her, as she was the oldest (guinea pig!) Ds7 has never gotten any of this, poor little guy! I did explain to her that as an (advanced) 4th grader, that stuff starts to fade some due to time limitations. When we did do this type of thing, the learning really stuck and she enjoyed it so much. I wish I were a "fun" mom! I am a just the facts, keep things streamlined mom. :glare: They do get art, music, etc. at co-op so they're not totally deprived. Dd even has a wonderful sci class where they do experiments (physics) almost every week. Both dc have done one salt map and some good hands on and games this yr in their history classes in co-op. But I would like to be better about doing something, even once a week. I've added in some math games; that's not exactly what the dc meant though. Next yr we'll be back to Ancients and doing SOTW with AG and either HOD CTC or (maybe) TOG, so that should help a lot. What can I do in the meantime? I don't like busywork and like meaningful activities (no making coonskin caps-lol!) It needs to be with stuff I mostly have on hand. I'm just so lame at this stuff! I thought one thing I could do is read to both of them from Let's Read and Find Out sci books and have them illustrate with labeling/do a notebook page once a week. We just read Gail Gibbons' "From Seed to Plant" (picture book, but it was quite meaty) and I'm going to have them try to do a little drawing/labeling thing tomorrow. Nature journals are kind of a bust around here-we all have them and never use them. But maybe something guided like this might work, I'm thinking. What about hands-on stuff? Easy but meaningful sci experiments? We mostly unschool sci because they love it and read a lot on their own. I'd like to keep them together for this type of thing rather than try to plan their own activities out at their own level, just for convenience. Thanks for any ideas!

Which kits do you absolutely love? Which ones are messy, but fun to do outside? Which ones gave you the most oooooohhhhh!!!!! for your buck? Which ones kept those wiggly little boys glued to the science experiment? Which ones would you have done if you could have done it outside or if you had the whole day to devote to it instead of trying to fit it in after Math, reading Grammar and history? Which ones actually taught your kiddoes something they remembered at least a day after you cleaned up>? Etc....etc...etc... Jump on in and give me your best.... I am looking to have some fun with this this summer!! ~~Faithe