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Oak Knoll Mom

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Posts posted by Oak Knoll Mom

  1. I was worried about the same thing too during my son's first year at TIP camp. I had to pay the balance of his homeschool class tuition while he was gone and I was a little worried that he'd come back wanting to go to a brick-and-mortar school. He came back totally recommitted to homeschooling. I think he saw how good he has it!

     

    I just picked him up from UGA for his second year of TIP camp. Once again, he absolutely loved it. He participated in the Criminal Law and Mock Trial class where his teacher was a lawyer with 36 years experience as a criminal defense attorney. She brought in a lot of guest speakers: judges, public defenders, George Zimmerman's defense attorney, a lawyer who has argued in front of the Supreme Court, etc. He learned a lot and benefited from his teacher's encouragement that he has the brains and temperament for being a lawyer.

     

    The social aspect was great for him too. He got to spend three weeks with his intellectual peers. It was a breath of fresh air for him to make all the witty jokes he wanted, knowing that the people around him would actually get them. :-) They keep the kids busy during the evening with things that interest bright kids. And for a growing boy, a college cafeteria with unlimited food is heaven. 

     

    He's already talking about next year. He has to decide if he wants to go back to UGA or head to the main campus at Duke. Decisions, decisions.

    • Like 4
  2. I don't know what "Dropbox" is, but it sounds like something to avoid. I have noticed myriad websites offering "free .PDF files" of all manner of material, presumably pirated. Decades ago, in library school, we were taught carefully about copyright laws.

     

     

    Dropbox isn't the problem. It's a cloud storage service that lets you store your own files "in the cloud" so that you can access them from anywhere. It's the way people are using Dropbox that is the problem.

  3. So do you use these as your main curricula? Just curious, I've been too afraid to jump completely to this.

     

     

    My DS loves LoF too, but he's going through the books so fast, I feel like they are going to be over and I won't know what to do next. He is only about to start F, we are waiting for it in the mail. But he's taking only 3 weeks per book, so we will be done with J by the end of the summer.

     

     

    I'm glad to hear there is a slowdown coming. He also does at least 2 chapters a day.

     

     

    The author recommends taking a little break, then starting over back at Apples if your child is younger than 5th grade.

  4. I would probably get out of Moore after today if I could. It's just so scary and sad. :crying:

     

    I have a friend who is the music teacher at Briarwood Elementary. She and her son took cover in a faculty bathroom. The door to bathroom was torn off its hinges and flew into her and broke her foot. Miraculously, though, the door ended up protecting them when the roof collapsed. Her van was in the parking lot and is now missing, but her house and the rest of her family is safe. Her kids are begging to move.

  5. Why is taking the SAT in 7th grade desirable? I know people do it sometimes, but I don't know why.

     

    Taking tests designed for older students (testing out of grade level) helps give a better picture of what a gifted or accelerated child actually knows. On a test geared towards my son's grade level, he typically will hit the ceiling and I end up with very little usable information. Since we live in a state that requires yearly testing, I figure I should at least use it to get a good sense of what he knows/doesn't know!

     

    From the Duke TIP website:

    Why above-level testing?

    Some gifted students may "bump their heads" against the ceilings of tests and assessment devices used to evaluate the abilities of students in their grade level. Score results for these students may suggest that they are bright, without providing more specific and substantial information.

    Students who score at the highest levels on grade-level testing devices may need higher degrees of difficulty to differentiate these students' level and depth of knowledge. For example, two students may appear identical on a grade-level assessment, scoring at the 99th percentile. However, when given an above-level test, these students could be quite different (i.e., one scoring at the 75th percentile and another at the 25th percentile).

    When approached carefully, above-level testing can offer valuable feedback. Such testing may be appropriate when a student:

    • scores at the top of the range on grade-level assessment devices;
    • consistently makes excellent grades without studying or apparent effort;
    • indicates high ability through regular testing but makes surprisingly low grades in the classroom;
    • and wants to know more about the degree and nature of his or her academic strengths.

  6. Everyone is right that CC uses Saxon in the Challenge levels, but you don't have to use it at home yourself. My son does LOF at home. Sometimes he'll say, "I learned how to do this in class," but usually he already knows the math before he gets to class and is able to participate with everyone else. (His class is doing 8/7, but he's doing LOF Pre-Algebra.)

  7. I would love to see the ability to memorize the tables up through 15x15. We are in Classical Conversations and that's what they teach, but there is *nothing* out there that goes that high. We've used Timez Attack and Times Tales to learn up through 12x12, but we've just had to muscle through the 13s, 14s, and 15s using flashcards and drill sheets. Also, Timez Attack stresses out one of my kids.

  8. Has anyone had their child participate in one of the Duke TIP recognition ceremonies? What was it like? Was it worth it? Are you glad you did it and would you do it again?

     

    We got my son's invitation in the mail yesterday and are trying to decide if it's worth it. It's on a day we could go and it's an easy two hour drive.

     

    TIA

  9. Do you have a way to sit in an visit a class from the actual campus you'd be doing CC? There is a significant variant in the quality of the program dependent on the teacher and the campus. We tried Challenge 1 when my oldest was in 8th grade. I should have listened to my instincts. I didn't think it was going to be enough work or challenging enough so I asked to have her placed in Challenge 1 even though I thought that was a bit light as well. They were very reluctant, telling me it was way to much for someone not in high school. Eventually they relented, we too did math and science at home, but even with a year ahead - it was not nearly enough for any subject. Fortunately it was 8th grade and I didn't have to worry about it being enough for credit and we supplemented everything at home. But for the money - it was not close to worth it and without supplementation I would not have felt comfortable giving high school credit for the work. I have heard people who have not had this experience and it often sounds like different people have different programs depending on what the teacher does - so definitely try the actual campus you will be on. Don't assume they are all the same.

     

    Can you be more specific about what wasn't nearly enough for any subject? Just for starters they do Henle Latin 1, Saxon Algebra 1, and an Apologia science text. They read and discuss and write about 21 different novels and books of essays. That's way more than I ever did in any high school class. Just these four areas look like plenty of work worthy of high school credit. I'm not familiar enough with the assignments for the other two subject areas to have an opinion.

     

    I ask because my son is going into Challenge B this fall with the plan to continue with Challenge 1 the following year.

  10. I can't answer you question because my oldest is heading into Challenge B next year too. I just ordered all his books for next year and am looking forward to going through them myself this summer. Hopefully that will give me a better idea of where/if I need to supplement. Your Challenge B tutor (providing she has tutored Challenge B before) would also be a great resource for this. (I have heard that there are some recommendations out there for those who need to beef up Challenge B for high school credit.)

  11. Is there any way to print a thread? I would like to print some of the longer threads like the 13 page Circe Institute one, but I can't find an easy way to do it. TIA

     

    ETA: I found the below in the board help files, but it doesn't look like we have the option.

    Sharing Topics

    At the bottom of each topic you will see "Share this topic" followed by a number of links that allow you to email the topic to someone else, share a topic on Twitter, post it to Facebook,print the topic, or download and save the topic. Simply press the appropriate link and follow the on-screen instructions.

  12.  

    No, not really. They just douse themselves in cologne once girls start to enter the picture. I'm not sure which is worse, BO or overpowering Axe! :D

     

    I have three younger brothers and when they were interested in girls, they took over their own grooming and would sometimes shower multiple times a day. Maybe it helped that they were good friends and brutally honest with each other and would say things like, "you need to go take a shower right now." LOL I do know my mom had to do a lot more laundry during those years because nothing could be worn more that once.

  13. ... when you have a couple of cutsie little baby boys, and decide you want a couple more, that one day they'll start to grow into stinky teenagers. Just now all my four (aged 5 to 13) and three of their friends (aged 12 to 13) are playing the XBox in my sitting room; I just went in for something, and ... phew the pong! Quite overwhelming. And it's just going to get worse isn't it ... ?

     

     

    It will get a little better when they start being interested in girls. :laugh:

  14. Exfoliate gently in the shower and use a lotion high in alpha-hydroxide (AHA). Amlactin is great for this. I've used it in the past, but I don't care for the smell or consistency (its a bit viscous)

     

     

    LOL re the smell. I think it smells like Elmer's glue.

  15. We decided against CC when we learned some of the assignments involve copying and/or memorizing bible verses. I'm generally ok with the kids attending programs that call themselves Christian but, as Catholics, we were not ok with this particular group.

     

    During Cycle 3, you do memorize John 1 in Latin and English as a type of translation exercise, and Cycle 1 & 2 each have a (non-required) Bible passage to memorize. I can't think of any time where copying Bible verses is required. (FYI, I'm a CC director and we've been in CC for seven years.)

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