From the newsletter for the new school year:

"We are pleased to announce the introduction of new enrollment options for EPGY Open Enrollment. You now can enroll your student for either a 10-month period at $135 or a 5-month period at $95. Both enrollment options include all three courses offered through Open Enrollment: Kindergarten-Pre-Algebra Math, Language Arts and Writing, and Beginning Algebra. The enrollment period begins the day of registration and expires 10 or 5 months later, respectively. You can also re-enroll at any time during the year using the re-enrollment tool on the student page, the page to which a student is taken upon login. If you re-enroll before your courses expire, your new expiration date will be either 10 or 5 months from the current date of expiration (not from the date of re-enrollment).

Please note that a $25 activation fee applies to all expired accounts and all new student accounts. To avoid this fee, re-enroll from the student page before your courses expire. The course expiration date appears on the student page.

We hope that the flexibility of these new enrollment options, which offer access to all three courses available through Open Enrollment and the convenience to re-enroll at any time during the year, will better allow you to make the choice that is right for your student."

I will open my registration for new students effective May 1st, with the hope that many of my current students will have re-enrolled to avoid fees, that way I have an idea of numbers. If you have a current student and plan to take time off but still wish to enroll for this school year please drop me an email so I can get an accurate feel for enrollment.

For new students please PM me the parent full name, email address, zip code, and student last name if different than the parents. If I have talked to you about a spot for this coming year refresh my memory. Seats will be first come first serve with preference given to established members of the board, for which the group was formed.

When I got this by email, I wondered if the main point of the "new enrollment option" was to increase the price. Before, 12 months was $135, now you only get 10 months for $135. Will the old 12-month option from June 1 to May 31 still be available?

Companies have the right to raise their prices, but it annoys me when they try to hide what they are doing.

I sent you a PM. thanks

Originally when the OE program started, the school year technically followed their school year, but if you registered early they let you start over the summer as an added bonus, then they just revised the school year to a 12 month year. I I don't like the way they worded it and I would rather have seen a price increase and retain the 12 month year, but they don't ask us. I know some parents are opting to wait over the summer if they don't use it and pay the $25 fee to enroll come fall term. If your child doesn't need a full year then the 3 month enrollments through the individual OE program might be a better choice than the 5 month group OE if you don't use the LAW.

Melmichigan,
Thanks so much for running this group. When I first heard about Math EPGY it sounded wonderful but was so very expensive.

I've head many descriptions of the Math, but is anyone willing to describe LAW, language Arts/writing?

Thanks,
Grinity

Has anyone used the beginning algebra curriculum? I'd love to hear comments on it.

My 7yo boy liked it and has finished it. I think it's good for basic algebraic manipulations (find the equation of a line through two points, factor a polynomial, solve a quadratic equation using the quadratic formula etc.), but a child who is gifted at math should probably follow up with an algebra book or course that is more rigorous, maybe AOPS including Alcumus or a textbook from the Dolciani series. (Or Singapore's New Elementary Mathematics? I am considering this. Has anyone tried it?)

LOL - that's funny because that's what we're using (Singapore NEM). I just wanted DS 4th grade to have an easy way to review this summer. I'd probably be disappointed in that case after 9 months of NEM.

I think NEM is fantastic. I consider it in a similar league as AoPS (I've looked at dozens of curriculum and have a pile of them). I really went with NEM because it seemed like the perfect thing to go to after Singapore and I knew we weren't ready for AoPS algebra yet (Singapore 6B doesn't quite hit all pre-alg topics). All the pre-alg curriculum I looked at seemed so fluffy compared to Singapore or AoPS though. I see AoPS has pre-alg coming out now and I would have jumped on that bandwagon last fall. NEM has really been parent intensive for us though, although we're getting better at using Khan academy videos. My son loves it and balking now that I'm thinking of switching curriculum. The thing that has been challenging is the amount of writing required to get through some of these problems. We are kind of crawling through for that reason. I'm personally NOT in a huge hurry to get to get to college level math. If we can stall getting to that level for a couple years by using a harder curriculum, all the better!

hi melmichigan,
i have sent you a PM to join
thanks
amom

Hi Melmichigan

Is there still an opening? I'd like to enroll for my 7 year old.

Thanks,

Gracew

We just started the EPGY math and LAW but DD7 is finding it frustrating. The interface is quite primitive and often counter intuitive. I was hoping to push her through that aspect but then one of the math times questions was illogical, which really confused her. It showed "two trays with things" which clearly had no things in them (that was the point of the exercise, to end up with 0) but the first question required her to say there were "two trays with things" in order to answer the others correctly. That was a show stopper for me.

Hi Melmichigan,

Can one join regardless of location? Do you have any openings still? I have a 7yo who would like to join.

Thanks a lot!