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monalisa

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Everything posted by monalisa

  1. I answered your other thread about stats, but now that I've read this you probably aren't interested in the Taylor Univ Online stats class. My dd went to a small private college in a science major that would have required calc for lifescience, so she took MUS Pre-Calc as a senior (and actually did part of MUS Calc in her gap year before college). She did fine, and it is pretty light (I actually still have it and would be happy to get it out of my basement if you want it just for the shipping cost!) However, she changed her major to communications and now is taking statistics; she was absolutely dreading having to take calculus so that was a relief to be able to take a different math. At her college, graphic design doesn't require calculus; any math will fulfill the math gen ed. Taking a lighter pre-calc like MUS is a good idea, but I agree that it probably isn't necessary to take pre-calc unless he's aiming for a very selective college. My dd was definitely not a math kid, and now that she's in college I kind of regret putting so much pressure on her about it. The oldest is the guinea pig I guess!
  2. Not sure if this fits what you're looking for, but Taylor University Online has a dual enrollment statistics class. My friend's daughter took it as a junior or senior and had no problems with it and transferred it to Cedarville. https://www.taylor.edu/online/courses/content-areas/science-technology-math My daughter took their intro to psychology as a senior and did well in it. There is no live online teacher in any of their classes, however, in case that matters. I wish I'd had my daughter take that stats class because she's now taking it in college as a gen ed (her major regret is that she didn't take more dual enrollment gen eds, actually). Some benefits of TU dual enrollment classes are that you can start anytime, they are self-paced (within a time limit of 4 months) , and you're the only student "in the class". The only criteria to enroll is to be age 16-19; no standardized test is required. You can call the person listed on this page for more info (I talked to her a couple of times and she was very helpful). https://www.taylor.edu/online/programs-licensures/high-school-students
  3. Thanks for that encouragement. That's what I really WANT to do, but the question is am I ready to commit to not enrolling her next year. Not a lot of great options for outside interaction where I live, and she's my youngest and very extroverted. No good co-ops, only lots of CC campuses (been there with older dd, done that, not going back! ;). There's one other minimally classical hybrid that starts in 7th but it takes a very different approach. She's really into Narnia right now so I might just buy the IEW Narnia Book 1 and do that on the side so she's getting more actual writing instruction, and help her extensively with W&R.
  4. That is a great point. I'm already in my mind not enrolling for next year, but this is my youngest, uber extroverted child who has thrived with outside teachers and friends she can see a few times a week. We enrolled again this year primarily for that reason, so I need to really think about so I don't back into a corner for next year. All my HS friends who have used W&R have only used the first 3-4 books, and are also surprised about trying to jump in at book 5. I'm not sure about the other students in her class struggling or not. I don't really have any contact with any of the other parents. Interesting. That makes me feel better, knowing that your kids had done the previous books and still had issues in book 4. I will probably try to get a hold of books 2-4 and see if I can remediate if I decide to stick it out. She did so great in IEW I think because it was very concrete, explicit instruction. I feel like that's not really what W&R is meant to be.
  5. I posted this on an old thread, but realized it would be better to ask on a new thread.... Looking for W&R Book 5 (Ref/Con) advice: My dd11 goes to a classical 3 day hybrid school that adopted W&R this year (threw out IEW, much to my chagrin). They are starting all 3rd graders in W&R book 1, but then from 4th through 10th grade, are jumping into W&R at different levels. They sold this as "we're going to transition students" but I don't see that happening at all in my daughter's class. They put the 6th graders in Book 5 (will also do Book 6 this year). My daughter is really struggling. I'd hoped the teacher would be making up for skipping books 1-4 with scaffolding of what was taught from book 1, but it seems she is just plowing through the lessons with very little teaching of concepts in the earlier books. My daughter did great with IEW, but is hating and resisting W&R. It feels like the W&R Book 5 assignments are just "write this" with very little instruction, and a whole lot of work book pages. Prior to this she did (successfully) 2 years of IEW Level A (with an online class the first year). The passages that they are asked to narrate or summarize are very long in W&R5, without any instruction on how to do this. I've tried to get dd to use her IEW techniques, but because the teacher isn't asking them to do this, she is resistant. She says she is overwhelmed with how long the stories are and she doesn't know where to start. The teacher says my daughter should have learned outlining and narration from IEW (she has never taught IEW, however). If you've used IEW, you know it doesn't teach traditional outlining, but looking at the W&R TE, it seems to me that they've taught outlining at some point are assuming kids know how to do this. Also, none of the IEW we ever used had much of any narrating (other than tell back your key word outline). Any advice on how to help her? Should I buy one or more of the prior levels of W&R and do some of the work to help her get up to speed? Honestly, I don't like W&R at all myself. This book seems beyond an average 6th grader. After 6 weeks of being underwhelmed by W&R, I'm tempted to pull her out of the class and just teach writing (with something else) at home (which is possible but causes some other logistical issues since it isn't the last class of the day).
  6. This is a slightly old thread, but looking for W&R advice...My dd11 goes to a classical 3 day hybrid school that adopted W&R this year (threw out IEW, much to my chagrin). They put the 6th graders in Book 5 (will also do Book 6 this year). My daughter is really struggling. I'd hoped the teacher would be making up for skipping books 1-4, but it seems she is just plowing through with very little teaching of concepts in the earlier books. My daughter did great with IEW, but is hating W&R. It feels like the W&R Book 5 assignments are just "write this" with very little instruction, and a whole lot of work book pages. Any advice on how to help her? After 6 weeks of being underwhelmed by W&R, I'm tempted to pull her out of the class and just teach writing (with something else) at home (which is possible but causes some other logistical issues since it isn't the last class of the day).
  7. It wasn't clear in your original post whether you are you having your students just read the lesson out of the Saxon books themselves or are you teaching it to them? If you are having them read it and learn on their own, they may need explicit instruction, either from you or from a video teacher like Dr. Shormann in DIVE, Nicole the Math Lady (she has a free 7 day trial), or Saxon Teacher. https://nicolethemathlady.com/ https://diveintomath.com/saxon-math/ https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/045882/Saxon-Math-Homeschool-Teacher-Digital-License-1-Year-Digital-Level-5-4-3rd-Edition.html? Saxon teacher comes on CD or streaming; Rainbow resource sells both. You can try the first 10 lessons of the DIVE videos as a sample (you have to navigate the to the product page for the particular level to find the sample link). Here's the google doc where all the sample course links are located. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UoiIeR1G0Q3F5gh8sz2iaMWIdCyMDALeFLejTZHmJiQ/edit Another thought: I know it is controversial whether or not to do all the problems in Saxon, but I'll add this suggestion from Dr. David Shormann, author of the DIVE teaching videos that go with Saxon (he has taught Saxon to homeschoolers for a long time, and does live classes for high school levels using his high school math program, which is similar to Saxon in format). He recommends that the students do odd problems on odd days of the month, even problems on even days, and you pick 5 problems from the most recent lessons to add to that, as long as the student is getting 80% or above on the weekly tests (so they would be doing 20 mixed practice per day). If the test scores drop below 80%, then you go up in number of practice problems. He also recommends setting a timer, 45 minutes for younger students, and hour for older students, and stopping for the day, even if you haven't finished the lesson.
  8. Is it DIVE or the Saxon book or both? There's also Nicole the Math Lady videos for Saxon https://nicolethemathlady.com/ FWIW, I'm having a similar issue trying to transition my dd9 to Saxon 54 (with DIVE) coming from a different curriculum (BJU). A big part of our problem is how far behind Saxon 54 is starting out from where BJU 3 ended. Having once tried MM years ago, I would venture to guess its even farther behind MM3, so could it be boredom? I'm trying to skip through 54 with testing and looking at the new concept taught each day to make sure dd doesn't have holes, but quite frankly she's pretty close to being able to do Saxon 65, when I look at the placement test. Your dd may be in the same boat. Plus, both BJU and MM are mastery, vs the tight incremental style of Saxon. It is a huge shift, and at first my dd liked it but now, not so much. Not sure we'll stick it out either ( and for sure I won't be able to go 5 weeks like we're going now), Best wishes in finding a solution!
  9. I have dd9 doing Level A year 1 now along with the online class (which is fantastic, btw). My older daughter did the old version of Levels A & B, Student Writing Intensive and Student Continuation Course. The way it worked before (like the previous poster said), and I think still does, is that you do Year one of a level, then year 2, then year 2 of the following levels. Levels B & C add units that aren't in level A, as well as more difficult stylistic techniques. I have only seen the Level A of the new version, but I am relatively sure it will be the same as the SWI and SICC courses were. If you bought the DVD versions, you would be able to easily sell those later and recoup some of your investment (obviously not true if you use the streaming version, which is what I'm doing). I was able to sell my DVD sets of SWI and SICC levels for half of what I paid.
  10. Moderately happy with Algebra 1. Very happy with Geometry. I also required my daughter do all her work on paper (she kept it all in a spiral notebook). After TT Pre-Algebra and Algebra 1, I felt like her understanding was shaky, even though she got an A in both TT courses. I had her repeat Algebra 1 with Derek Owens online Algebra 1, which was a more difficult course (she told me it covered things she did not learn in TT). She then did TT Geometry (DO Geometry uses Jacobs, and it was a no-go for her we realized after a few weeks). Then she did Derek Owens Algebra 2 (TT Algebra 2 included a fair amount of material that had been taught in DO Alg 1). This year she is doing MUS pre-calculus (which she picked, so if it ends up not working out, TT is our fall back). Probably more than you care to know! In retrospect, it probably would have been fine to have her do TT all the way through to pre-calculus without repeating Algebra 1. She could have then done calculus this year as a senior, but she isn't going to be a STEM major so it really doesn't matter. Her ACT math scores were relatively high, despite the fact that she dislikes math.
  11. My daughter is currently taking a dual enrollment class called Into to Psychology through Taylor University (online). She has really enjoyed it and learned a lot. It is completely asynchronous, and self-paced (you do the work online and in communication with the professor over email). You have 4 months to finish from the day you start the course (which is the day after you pay). I would highly recommend it for a student who would like that format. The course is built on an interactive textbook with embedded videos and activities. It is $200/credit hour, so $600 for the 3 credit hour class. There is no application or test score required -- the only criteria is that you must be 16 years old. (Taylor is a Christian university, btw, so there is a Christian element to the class, even though the main textbook is secular). https://www.taylor.edu/online/courses/social-sciences
  12. There are only CD-roms for the 2.0 edition. I'm pretty sure the 1.0 version was CD-ROMs also. They aren't DVDs you can play in your DVD player (they only run on a Windows or MAC computer). My dd did Algebra 1 version 2.0 before the streaming option (version 3.0), and there was a set of 10 CD-ROMs. I think you may be looking at the first edition, 1.0 on Ebay (I just looked myself, and see some 1.0 versions for sale and they include have discs labeled as CDs). I think the version 1.0 wasn't self-grading, but I'm not completely sure. I would recommend the updated edition, 2.0 or 3.0; they made some significant improvements in adding content from 1.0 to 2.0 making it more comparable to other Algebra 1 courses. Also, we liked the the streaming version (which is 3.0) if that works for you; its cheaper, and you can then just buy the big spiral textbook separately if you want it. My daughter used streaming for Geometry and it worked great (however, it does rely on Adobe Flash so I'm not sure what is going to happen when Adobe Flash goes away at the end of the year. Surely they have a plan). Edited to add: I just looked at the Teaching Textbook site and see that they are calling them DVDs. I can't imagine why, unless they have a webpage writer who doesn't know the difference. I also saw on their site that they are launching a 4.0 version, which works on desktop and mobile, and I'm assuming addresses the Adobe Flash Player issue.
  13. My daughter's scores now show up in the ACT system, though we've never received the notification email from ACT that they claim will be sent. So there was a 2 day delay between schools receiving her scores and getting access to the report on ACT's site. Just posting in case anyone else has this happen to them.
  14. I thought of one more curriculum, which we own and my daughter has used as a reference but not actually gone through lesson by lesson: Writing Fiction in High School by Sharon Watson. https://www.christianbook.com/writing-fiction-bringing-stories-student-text/sharon-watson/9781463582081/pd/582081?event=ESRCG
  15. Wondering if anyone whose student took the July 18 ACT and also ordered the test information release has received their scores yet. My dd has not received her scores directly from ACT, but one of the schools she sent scores to has received her scores! The school actually called and emailed today encouraging her to apply after having received her score report. I think this is completely unacceptable for ACT to send scores to a school before the student, but maybe this is not unusual? I've seen that some people have gotten their July results, but wondered if the test info release has delayed my daughter's.
  16. My daughter has enjoyed The One Year Adventure Novel. She's getting ready to start the follow-up course, Other Worlds. Both are one year courses. The lessons are on DVD or streaming with books that go with it, and there's an optional student forum that students can get writing advice, critiques, and regular live webinars. Probably the highlight of my daughter's high school career.
  17. I haven't looked much at the printed; I have a hard time finding samples of things on VP's site, but I should check that out. I do own all the cards plus all the older grades literature. Yes, I probably do miss doing history with her. I let my older daughter do all of the courses completely on her own in 4th-7th grade, and in retrospect I have some regret about that, after doing SOTW with her earlier. (Also, I felt like the VP courses didn't make her WORK enough, and that bit her big time in 8th grade when she took a textbook-based live history course. It is kind of hard for me to see how the VP self paced courses actually are preparing kids to do Omnibus.) I haven't observed her as closely as you mention, but I've thought of that being something I should do. I'm usually in the room, but not paying enough attention until she is starting to have a melt down over something like a game, etc. I should just sit with her for every lesson. And yes, I think in some ways she is on the young side for it. My older daughter was 2 years older when she did the same courses (and she still had some issues with the games!) so I think that is an element at play here. Great points & suggestions! Thank you!!!!
  18. Wow, I didn't know this was an option! Yes, we have problems with glitches and getting stuck sometimes too, so I should do this. Sometimes it seems like its caused by my browser, but sometimes that doesn't seem to matter. I would love to be able to skip around, and not have the grading. I feel like it isn't adding much for us. Thanks!
  19. If you've used VP SP history, I need some ideas. DD9 (4th grade) did VP self paced NT, Greece & Rome last year. She learned a fair amount, and enjoyed it to some extent. We did quite a few of the literature selections as read alouds. What I didn't like about it was how much screen time it required every day, and the review games were not infrequently frustrating for her (and I really wish there was a parent override for some of those silly games--they sucked up so much time without adding any value). I wish I hadn't done this now, but when the VPSA sale came along in the spring, I went ahead and bought the next level (MARR) thinking DD would work on it some over the summer. She did a few lessons at the end of the spring, but this level isn't as engaging for her and I've had a hard time getting her to do any over the summer. If I'd thought through this early enough, I could have gotten my money back, but the 90 days refund period is now a month past. I'm thinking maybe I need to switch to a no-screen course that covers this time period with lots of books, and possibly use VP as a supplement. I've been looking at MFW Rome to Reformation. Another idea is chuck the time period altogether and start with MFW Creation to Greeks, or even do a year of American History before starting a 4 year history rotation in 5th grade. She did a little bit of colonial American History in 1st grade, and Sonlight B in 2nd grade, which was a bust, so she's light on American history knowledge. She did not yet do the VP Self Pace OT/Egypt. If you've had a similar struggle with VP, what did you end up doing? Did you add to VP self paced in some way? Any other ideas for book-based Middle Ages, Rome, Reformation that would be good for 4th grade, that isn't teacher intensive? I do own Mystery of History and SOTW, but I'm leaning toward something planned out for me a little more (thus the draw to MFW).
  20. We have watched the BJU Hamlet production twice, once when it streamed live a few years ago and again this year when DD actually studied the play for a class. It is very well done, and I would highly recommend it.
  21. I'm not sure what course you're considering. My daughter used DIVE for Physical Science in 9th grade. The first half of the year she did the BJU DLO course (with the BJU book) but it was overwhelming in the sheer amount of material covered. I switched her to DIVE hoping to simplify a little. She was using the BJU book with DIVE also, which is a difficult book, and I would not recommend it for a slow reader. She had done well with the 7th and 8th grade BJU books, but this was a jump. She is a fast reader and generally good at science, but found DIVE quite difficult (and dry) . Maybe with a different book it would have been a different experience for her. However, she told me she felt like she learned very little that year, and was totally lost watching the DIVE labs. She also did one year of DIVE math and did well but didn't really like it. I personally like David Shormann, and think he is a good teacher, but I guess he isn't her cup of tea. In retrospect, I wish I'd had her go straight into biology in 9th grade using Apologia (with the videos). It was a great experience for her, whereas I feel like that 9th grade Physical Science was a wasted year. I would consider the Apologia books for any of the DIVE courses (for physical science, however, you would have to use the DIVE links for all of the chemistry, since Apologia's book doesn't cover that). The BJU book is considered "honors", and the ABEKA book may be also. I would not personally do one of the DIVE courses without a textbook, just using the internet links. I think in preparation for college, they need to be using a science textbook. Apologia has video supplements (they used to be on DVD, now on jump drive) for some of their courses; my daughter has used the Biology and Chemistry videos done by Sheri Seligson with success. This year with chemistry she also watched the Apologia Academy recorded classes with Mr. Martin, which was a huge help for her (just the videos -- no grading). One other thought about the Apologia books is that you can get them all on audio CD, so the student can listen to them. My friend's daughter used these successfully along with the textbook. Maybe that would be a help for dyslexia. One other video science option that comes to mind is Derek Owens for Physical science. We have used his math courses and found them very good. He also had regular physics.
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  23. This may be a weird question, but at what point do you lock your student into a graduation date? Is it once they've taken SAT/ACT and declared a graduation month/year? My junior year dd is very bright but somewhat socially and emotionally immature student. She's been involved with an in-person co-op that hasn't been academically rigorous, and has taken a few online live classes. She has done well academically, but hasn't really had much challenge. I'm feeling a little panicky and think she really could use an extra year of HS before graduating (both to be prepared to handle the heavier academics and social aspects of college), but she isn't young for her grade (January birthday). However, she took the SAT last year as a sophomore and I declared her graduating in 2021 (she did well on the SAT, so that is not my concern). Are we locked in to that now? I know a lot can change before end of senior year, but I'm just wondering as I'm trying to start planning 12 grade, and also having a hard time imaginging her actually being ready to go away to college in 2021. She is a homebody with not a lot of friends or social life, and is not clamoring to leave home. Is it bad to add a year of high school to allow for maturation, or is it better to have a student do a Gap Year? We don't like the local community college or state college options much, and we all think she'd do better at a small private college (and there is one that she is interested in, but it is too far for her to live at home and commute). But sending her off in less than 2 years seems very daunting to her and to me. She has actually said she'd like to be a year younger in school, and her few friends are younger than her. My husband isn't crazy about the idea of a gap year, fearing she'd end up not going to college at all. This is my oldest child, and I have very few local friends who are homeschooling high school to lean on for advice. Thanks for any insights or experiences.
  24. My daughter took the 2 BIP classes with Jaime Anderson last year. She had a very good experience. Classes were small, Mrs. Anderson is very helpful and energetic, and she got LOTS of timely feedback on her papers (all their work was done in Google Docs). I highly recommend both of those classes! If you have any specific questions, I'm happy to answer them.
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