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Canadians? What are your curricula?


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A question for my fellow Canadians.

 

Do you tend to follow the US way of handling high school, in maths and sciences mostly, or do you do like your province?

 

I've spent two weeks looking for science for 8th grade, and getting only american suggestions (nothing wrong with that) but at the last minute I found a program in Ontario that looks promising. But it does not follow the biology/chemistry/physics levels found in the States. It looks like every year there's a bit of everything in it.

 

Investigating Science (grades 7 & 8)

 

 

Investigating Science (grades 9 & 10)

 

Those would be followed by a year of chemistry and a year of physics

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I buy American curriculum. But my plan is, over the summer, to have them do two pages a day from "Complete Canadian Curriculum" Covers science, math, social studies and English. Just so I know they've at least touched on what is grade expected of them that year.

 

I'd love to find a homeschool Canadian curriculum!

 

Going to check out your links.:auto:

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This is the problem I am running into, too. I found Rainbow Science follows BC's scope and sequence fairly closely for gr. 7-9, just not in order, so that's working for now. Math is a pain though, since here we include geometry and statistics & probability all the way through. The plan for this year is to use TT since it suits ds, then add in SNAP Math pages to cover what's missing... just waiting for it to arrive from ADS.

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A question for my fellow Canadians.

 

Do you tend to follow the US way of handling high school, in maths and sciences mostly, or do you do like your province?

 

I don't even understand how math is done here in high school. It's just called "grade 10 math" and so forth. I've asked people, and no one has been able to really tell me which branch it belongs to. I get told a mishmash of skills that are taught each year. Of course, I went to American high school, so algebra, geometry, and pre-cal all make more sense to me. But I also like the idea of doing one branch per year, so I will probably stick with that. Really, what I should do is find a list of skills for each of the high school grades here, and compare them to my Dolciani books I've been collecting. Then maybe NS high school math will make sense to me?

 

Once, I asked a rather snooty acquaintance of mine what exactly her high school girls did in math classes, and she said, "Oh, it's very advanced - it's way more than you ever did in high school." I thought, "You have NO CLUE what I did in high school - I'm not from around here, remember??" (She went to school here) (her professional degreed-rich self also looks down on us poor, uneducated parents; while her then grade 11 girl, in the mother's own words, "can't write beyond a 4th grade level!") (she also thinks my 12yods should have a girlfriend) :lol:

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But my plan is, over the summer, to have them do two pages a day from "Complete Canadian Curriculum"

 

Does Complete Canadian Curriculum cover high school? I thought it was till grade 6 only.

 

I'm mostly concerned about high school, here. Primary school is not as strict on following the exact curriculum as high school.

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One issue is availability and cost: I've found it hard to convince Canadian publishers to sell me teacher's editions and solution manuals, even with a letter from my school board. When they have agreed, the cost is much higher than I'd pay in the States. US materials are also more readily found used.

 

The other issue is content: I can borrow the "official" math and science texts from my library. Some of them I like. Others are, I think, too watered down. The Ontario science curriculum, for example, is very weak in grades 9 and 10, and very intense in grades 11 and 12. Because my kids were ready for more serious science earlier, it didn't make sense to use the official materials.

 

I guess part of the problem is the size of the market--there just aren't enough homeschooling Canadians to make an attractive market. The other part of the problem is the "official" textbooks--there's not a lot of incentive for publishers to produce materials other than those that have been officially blessed by the province.

 

I have correlated what we've done (with US texts) to the Ontario curriculum, and I'm confident that my kids are going to be on par (or ahead) by the end of grade 12. If I expected that my kids were going to enter high school mid-stream, I'd be working harder to match year by year.

 

.

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So far, I’ve purchased American math and science programs. I’m using Saxon Algebra ½ for Math and CPO Middle School/Jr High resources for Science.

 

U.S. homeschool science resources don’t necessarily line up well with provincial scopes and sequences. Here in B.C. (and Quebec too?), public school science up to grade 10 is a mix of disciplines in a given year and once the student hits grade 11, science is split off: Biology 11 and 12; Chem 11 and 12; Physics 11 and 12. These 11 and 12 courses are one semester long and Science 12's are not needed for an accredited B.C. diploma.

 

The challenge with American homeschool senior high science programs is that a typical 1 year course could cover off both 11 and 12 level courses here in B.C. (and some of Science 10), but there will definitely be gaps. Put another way, an accredited B.C. Chemistry 11 course, for example, is probably easily filled out by a decent U.S. homeschool high school Chemistry course (e.g., Apologia Chemistry), but that same homeschool course won’t extend out to cover off everything that a B.C. accredited Chem 12 course involves. I’m finding this to be true for Biology and Physics as well.

 

To my mind, using reputable U.S. homeschool science material is, by and large, fine for covering off science 11’s. At the end of the day, the student will get a decent grade 11 science course and is likely to get some grade 12 bits within that particular program as well. All’s good for our students who don’t need science 12s on their transcript or for post secondary pre-requisites.

 

What to do for our math/science focused kids who want full on science in their senior year? I have no idea, but I’ll be thinking about it soon! :tongue_smilie: Other than Apologia’s advanced science courses (which might take a Canadian student beyond a typical grade 12 science course - depends on the course I think), nothing really springs to mind insofar as US homeschool resources are concerned. We’ll have to hunt down our own alternatives and share on these boards. :D

 

Looking to the U.S. homeschool market for Math isn’t stressing me out as much. We’re going with Saxon (some of our independent distance learning schools in B.C. endorse Saxon) and I feel confident that if my son works Saxon right the way thru’ (i.e., completes Saxon’s Advanced Mathematics), he will more than satisfy B.C.’s Math 12 requirement. I’m not trying to push Saxon on anyone or imply that Saxon is the be all and end all US homeschool Math program, but if an American resource provides equal or better scopes and sequences than Saxon, I think our students will be fine for the most part.

 

Cheers!

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No, complete curriculum doesn't go up now. I know there's BC and ON stuff at, I think it's called "Canadian Teacher's Store" If you're intrested and can't find it, I'll look tomorrow.

 

IDK about other provinces. But ON has what each grade has to learn on-line. Mind you, it's so overwhelming, lengthy and full of teacher talk that I just don't bother. But I might for higher up.

 

For highschool, there's a place on-line where you can get your full Ontario secondary diploma. Problem is, it's $400 a course. What do you need? 30 courses to graduate here I think? But even at $12,000, that's only about 1 1/4 years of Christian school tuition. I think we may end up doing that and supplementing with Christian stuff.

 

Also, on the application form for HSers, at the local university, it mentions listing your curriculum, such as Tree of Life. http://www.treeoflifeathome.com They're a Canadian company issues diplomas. I haven't looked in too deep yet, but perhaps they'd have some helpful stuff.

Edited by mumkins
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I think a family's choice in curricula will be dictated by whether or not they chose to get a HS diploma, would it not? For instance, in Alberta there are a number of post-secondary institutions that accept students without a diploma, and, in our family, we've never taught according to the Alberta curriculum. It is true that we're heavy on the humanities, and, so far, have only one child possibly attending post secondary - he's interested in going to film school, which our local university covers.

 

The child next in age to him is most likely going for her teacher's certificate in piano, although she's also interested in taking literature at the same university. Our school board has very good online Socratic discussion-based Great Books and History classes that have already proven successful toward gaining post secondary access, and she has taken several of these. Both our HS children have really enjoyed these classes, and the younger ones (13 and 11) are weaseling their way into attending them as well.

 

The question of our curricula being US-based is really good. We have used more and more of the WTM materials over the last couple of years with our younger children, and I think almost all, if not certainly all, of it is US-based. Our math is generally Saxon, but the older children are using either the "Keys to..." series, or a program called Elementary Algebra. Not sure of the origins of either, sorry.

 

It's a pleasure to see just how many of we (few) Cannucks are out there, eh?

 

Nancy.

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I think a family's choice in curricula will be dictated by whether or not they chose to get a HS diploma, would it not?

 

Yes it would. Over here, in Quebec, the whole system makes it hard to get a high school diploma by homeschooling, and yet, it's pretty mandatory to get. You can't get into CEGEP without one, and French universities won't look at you if you don't have the CEGEP diploma, or a HS diploma from elsewhere. English universities don't accept many homeschoolers either (although they did accept a few).

 

I'm still undecided but it looks like DS will attend public school for the last 2 years of high school (grade 10 and 11) . It would make everything so much easier. He's completely against it though.

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I don't even understand how math is done here in high school. It's just called "grade 10 math" and so forth. I've asked people, and no one has been able to really tell me which branch it belongs to. I get told a mishmash of skills that are taught each year. Of course, I went to American high school, so algebra, geometry, and pre-cal all make more sense to me. But I also like the idea of doing one branch per year, so I will probably stick with that. Really, what I should do is find a list of skills for each of the high school grades here, and compare them to my Dolciani books I've been collecting. Then maybe NS high school math will make sense to me?

 

Once, I asked a rather snooty acquaintance of mine what exactly her high school girls did in math classes, and she said, "Oh, it's very advanced - it's way more than you ever did in high school." I thought, "You have NO CLUE what I did in high school - I'm not from around here, remember??" (She went to school here) (her professional degreed-rich self also looks down on us poor, uneducated parents; while her then grade 11 girl, in the mother's own words, "can't write beyond a 4th grade level!") (she also thinks my 12yods should have a girlfriend) :lol:

 

Back in the dark ages when I went to high school in BC here's how it went for me as I remember it.

 

Grades 8, 9 & 10 math were Algebra, with Geometry as a second course in Grade 10 (so both Geometry & Algebra in one year, but each 1 semester long. Wait, I think it was 1.5 semesters. All I remember is I thought it was far too slow because I was mathy.) I was in CA for grade 11, so I don't know, but I did trig that year. When I did grade 12 math it included a number of things including trig.

 

What you did not see, and I think for the most part you still don't see, are Canadian high school students doing Calculus in high school. It's done in university. Jann in TX who is a math teacher says that only about 10 percent ( hope I'm paraphrasing this correctly) of high schoolers are truly ready for Calculus in high school, so this may be a good thing.

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Hi Cleo--

 

I know you are dealing with a different system than I am--but is it possible to take university courses early, while technically still CEGEP age? The reason I ask is that our local university welcomes grade 11 and 12 high school students with a gpa of over 85 to take one or two classes each semester. Not many have the time to do this. However, local homeschoolers love the program. (The local university has waived the gpa regulation for homeschoolers.) DD will probably have 6 courses completed by the time she is 18--and the universities she's interested in attending, so far, are willing to base their acceptance on those courses. It's nice to be in local classes, but you could also do correspondence courses from U of Athabasca, for example. Would Quebec universities then accept your kids as transfer students?

 

--Ruth

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There's a chance we might be moving to Ontario and just to be prepared (not knowing when we can go, what grade DS will be in then and whether we'll be homeschooling!) I was checking out the scope and sequence...

 

It actually looks like the Singapore math and science materials match pretty well to the Ontario curriculum - which is just a little funny because I've been "re-ordering" them to better match a US sequence. ;)

 

Singapore does Algebra and Geometry alternating through two years (NEM 1 and 2), then something like US Algebra 2 in the 3rd year, and a thorough review/ precalculus for the 4th. And for science it's 7th and 8th grade dabbling in lots of different topics and then there are separate books for Biology, Chemistry and Physics but they're meant to be done simultaneously through 9th and 10th grades.

 

It's not a perfect match, but you might find it easier to make them fit.

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but is it possible to take university courses early, while technically still CEGEP age?

 

It looks like it's not feasible, no. A few years ago, it was possible to enter CEGEP on the basis of a portfolio. The ministry changed that, they really want to enforce their high school diploma on everyone, and are closing every door they can find.

 

Right now we're praying that DS can make the elite synchro team before grade 10, so he can join the 'sports-études' program. The chances are between slim and nil, though. But that would get him into a decent school, with a decent program.

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Ontario students who are headed towards math, science and engineering are expected to take the high school calculus class. This is not a full-blown calculus class, but it is an introduction.

 

 

I thought there was some kind of an exception or two somewhere in the country. Is this a carry over from when Ontario had grade 13?

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Grades 11 and 12 can be quite intense because they try to pack so much into it--perhaps because they are trying to do 3 years in two. (For example, high schoolers headed for math intense subjects take at least 2 math classes in grade 12. I assume one of those classes used to be a grade 13 class.) On the other hand, if you are headed for liberal arts fields, all you absolutely must have is grade 12 English. (You need 5 other grade 12 classes, but usually there are no requirements on which ones you take.)

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