[quote]I am profoundly exhausted by being a driver - yes - and it does not look like it is going to change any time soon, unfortunately. We live in the area with a very poor public transportation system, so I have no choice but to be my kid'd private chauffeur.
Oh boy, do I know how that feels! I have 3-4 carpools depending on the activities, but sometimes it seems like keeping track of carpools is even harder than just doing it all yourself (if you could be two places at the same time). We have really pared down the activities. Even so, I continue to deny DS6 gymnastics and DS11 guitar lessons because I don't want more stuff to track and be responsible for. Maybe after spring break...but then soccer starts, and summertime is around the corner.
I think AoPS is excellent, very challenging, very fast-paced, and for the serious math-talented youth (not kid!). It comes with a "community" of other math-talented kids, who enjoy solving problems for fun (difficult problems!). DS 9 is taking the Intro to Algebra course, which covers topics in both Alg 1 & Alg 2, plus some trig; most of the kids are older (11-12), but I was pretty desperate. He can't do many of the challenge problems, but he's exposed to new topics. My strategy is that he'll take a "real" Alg 1 course next year for credit, where he'll solve all the problems, maybe do a couple competitions, and maybe take another AoPS course toward the end of that to keep finding out new topics. We'll see.
As for DS 6, his teacher says she'll get him to work a little more on ALEKS, since he'll be doing it a lot next year, and I'll probably buy some Singapore for self-paced summertime work.
