wenryrose Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Hi, everyone. I'm new here. I'm fourteen and I found "The Well-Trained Mind" and I am trying to modify the curricula to suit my needs. Any general suggestions or advice for where to post? Thanks. :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Hi, everyone. I'm new here. I'm fourteen and I found "The Well-Trained Mind" and I am trying to modify the curricula to suit my needs. Any general suggestions or advice for where to post? Thanks. :) Join us over in the high school section :) http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/forum/5-high-school-and-self-education-board/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Is anyone helping you at all? Have you been homeschooled before? Successfully? Unsucessfully? Do you attend a school? Do you have a budget for buying curricula? What level of math are you currently? How about reading comprehension? Will you be teaching yourself every subject? Do you know what college you want to attend? We have a wealth of information here on this site and the answers to questions like those above can help us get started helping you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Seconding the high school board recommendation. There's quite a bit of reading/gleaning that can happen from that board. BTDT, though as a parent. Best wishes to you on your journey! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenryrose Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 Is anyone helping you at all? Have you been homeschooled before? Successfully? Unsucessfully? Do you attend a school? Do you have a budget for buying curricula? What level of math are you currently? How about reading comprehension? Will you be teaching yourself every subject? Do you know what college you want to attend? We have a wealth of information here on this site and the answers to questions like those above can help us get started helping you. Thank you for asking these questions, here are some answers: My parents are really busy with work and the like, so it's all they can do to drive me and my sisters to school and hope that we learn things. I do have access to people who can help, though. I have been homeschooled before! I don't remember much of it, only that it was a lot of fun to explore our town and that we did "school-in-a-box"- I think it was K-12. I'm not sure if that was particularly *successful* but there is something that has stayed with me even to this day-my mum teaching me how to read herself. She read to me all the time, I memorized books and talked very early, and she did some sort of phonics program and I was reading decent chapter books by the time I was around four. That was a success. I do attend a school right now, though next year I'm looking forward to doing online school,which I hope to supplement with independent studies, as I'm foreseeing that it may leave something to be desired. I don't really have a budget for buying curricula, but I'm great at finding quality stuff for free or cheap, especially when armed with my trusty library card! I'm sure my parents will be willing to help me with buying resources as well. I'm poor at math at the moment. I can't really seem to go beyond the prealgebra level, and I rely on counting fingers and other preoperational sorts of habits. But this site: http://www.themathpage.com/looks promising. And thanks to my mum, my reading comprehension is great, but I have trouble writing formal compositions or stories if they're longer than about a page. I think that apart from free courses at the library and online school, I will be mostly teaching myself. Some things I would like some formal instruction in after I develop more confidence in my abilities with them: piano, visual art, creative writing,singing,etc. I also want to take courses for fun and interaction with other learners. I'm still quite undecided about college. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenryrose Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 Thank you so much to everyone who helped me! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Look up dyscalculia and see if that sounds like you. Lots of people with dyscalculia can do well with maths once they can get past/ around arithmetic. My dd is only grade 2 so I don't have experience to share there yet, but there are others around here who do. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 The best way to find out information on this forum is to ask specific questions one at a time. So, first step: perhaps figure out exactly what subjects and grade levels you want to study. Make a list. Second step: create a new post asking about one of the subjects you want to study. For example: Title: I'm 14, teaching myself math, need free curric recs In your post explain what you've said above, then ask, "Does anyone know of a free math curric I could use?" Keep it simple and short. The only free online curric I can think of right now is Khan academy (Khanacademy.org), but I know there are a couple more good ones out there. Hopefully someone will respond. (I wish I could remember what those other free math currics were...ugh!) Then, later, do another post about writing. State your issues with writing, let people know you're teaching yourself, and are looking for something free. Hopefully you'll get some recommendations. Keep going, issue by issue in separate posts. It's really hard to answer posts that are too broad or ask too many questions. People don't really know where to start to help out and they don't bother because it would take too long to answer all the questions. I've had lots of luck when I ask specific questions about specific issues. Be sure to post on the high school forum. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenryrose Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 Look up dyscalculia and see if that sounds like you. Lots of people with dyscalculia can do well with maths once they can get past/ around arithmetic. My dd is only grade 2 so I don't have experience to share there yet, but there are others around here who do. :) I've heard of dyscalculia before, and I do exhibit some of the symptoms. But I think I just need to get aquainted with basic arithmetic to the point where it becomes automatic, at least as a first step. I think I might ask for help on this forum in other sections. Thanks for your suggestions. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenryrose Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 The best way to find out information on this forum is to ask specific questions one at a time. So, first step: perhaps figure out exactly what subjects and grade levels you want to study. Make a list. Second step: create a new post asking about one of the subjects you want to study. For example: Title: I'm 14, teaching myself math, need free curric recs In your post explain what you've said above, then ask, "Does anyone know of a free math curric I could use?" Keep it simple and short. The only free online curric I can think of right now is Khan academy (Khanacademy.org), but I know there are a couple more good ones out there. Hopefully someone will respond. (I wish I could remember what those other free math currics were...ugh!) Then, later, do another post about writing. State your issues with writing, let people know you're teaching yourself, and are looking for something free. Hopefully you'll get some recommendations. Keep going, issue by issue in separate posts. It's really hard to answer posts that are too broad or ask too many questions. People don't really know where to start to help out and they don't bother because it would take too long to answer all the questions. I've had lots of luck when I ask specific questions about specific issues. Be sure to post on the high school forum. Be specific, and simple. Got it. (Sorry if my previous posts were too broad, I was kind of overwhelmed!) Thank you for helping to identify the steps that I could take. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 I've heard of dyscalculia before, and I do exhibit some of the symptoms. But I think I just need to get aquainted with basic arithmetic to the point where it becomes automatic, at least as a first step. I think I might ask for help on this forum in other sections. Thanks for your suggestions. :) When did you start trying? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenryrose Posted May 11, 2015 Author Share Posted May 11, 2015 When did you start trying? Trying to get aquatinted with basic arithmetic? Oh, only recently. I started having trouble with school math classes when I was about a sixth-grader, but it's never been easy for me. I think that school math was never very good at teaching me the basics or fostering understanding- I sometimes get the impression that they just wanted the students to "get through" the material and move on, instead of trying to help them with an important aspect of their lives and education. Even if I don't love math or even like it as anything more than a means to an end, I recognise that having practical abilities in it is important. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I really want to be able to understand practical math/the basics, and that classroom education (whether the fault was the teacher, the curriculum, or just my difficulty understanding the material) hasn't been much help so far, and in fact might have scared me away from pursuing math on my own, at least until now. (And sorry for the long-winded answer to your question! :)) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christiahn Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Reflexmath.com might be of help in learning addition/subtraction and multiplication/division facts to eliminate finger counting. It is not a free resource but very reasonably priced at $35/yr for one student (website-How to buy-homeusers tab). They also offer a free 14 day trial which I recommend using first and don't rush to input the answers during the set up section. The ability to recall basic math facts is extremely important as it impacts the ability to move on in math. My son was not fluent in his math facts and it was causing a great deal of frustration because he couldn't figure out the answer in a timely enough manner to be able to move on to other steps in a multistep problem. For him it started in 5th grade math. Recognizing that something needed to be done asap, I subscribed to the 14 day free trial to make sure he didn't hate it and then ended up buying a year subscription. For optimal use it should be used a minimum of 3 times a week until the green light turns on. I recommend using it a minimum of 4 times a week to help facilitate the process and finish sooner. It took him about 5 months of using it 4 times a week to finish addition/subtraction facts.He probably would have finished a bit sooner but I was slow to read the tips sent to my email. This week he will begin using the multiplication/division to 12. Should you check into it, I am very interested to hear your thoughts on it. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kasien7 Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 I second the recommendation for Reflex math. It is an online game program that identifies what facts you are fluent in, and which take you longer. The games adjust specifically to your needs based on that info. I have used it with my 3 younger kids, and they are completely fluent while my two older, middle school aged kids still have to think about math facts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Welcome! I would start at Khan Academy for the math. Just pick one of the lower grades and start working through it, using their explanations until you can do the problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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