Jump to content

Menu

Cabertmom

Members
  • Posts

    179
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Cabertmom

  1. I came across this thread while looking for something else. I just wanted to mention a university that might fit the bill so to speak. University of Dallas is a Catholic liberal arts university with a great English program, though the focus is much more on literature than it is on creative writing. I don't think it is possible to graduate from there in any major without becoming at least a decent writer as the number of essays required far exceeds your average college. They also have a semester abroad in Rome that most students participate in, which is why I decided to mention this since you said that is what your daughter longs for. Our oldest two are there, and my husband and I met and graduated from there as well. It is strongly Catholic and one of a handful of colleges that is faithful to what the Catholic Church actually teaches for the most part. Nonetheless, there is a significant percentage of non-Catholic students (I don't know what your background is), and a non-Catholic student wouldn't feel weird there I suspect. Also, don't be toooo afraid of the tuition. They give big merit scholarships and lots of financial aid.
  2. Thanks, everybody. He will be installing Linux as part of the process. It's good to know (in a way) it isn't as involved as previously thought to build a computer. I was thinking of adding some networking component to add to the course after hearing from all of you that it takes less time than previously expected. Honestly, I wanted him to have another course for his junior year as it looks a bit sparse compared with his freshman and sophomore years, and he wanted to build a computer, so it occurred to me that this could be a good way to kill two birds with one stone. I'm sure we can add enough to make it a legitimate half credit.
  3. Regentrude, this is not something I know much about. My son made a rough estimate of 60 hours. Does that seem over the top to you? He'll be researching components, deciding on cost versus value, etc. I was thinking of adding some sort of networking credit as well perhaps and planning for a half credit. Does that seem reasonable or over the top to you? Julie, those are both great title ideas. Thank you!
  4. I have a question for everybody if I may. My son is finishing his junior year, and he would like to build his own computer this summer (with his own money thank goodness). I think that sounds like a great project, and I would like to include it on his transcript, but I don't know what sort of name to give it as a course. Computer Building or Building a Computer just doesn't sound "professional." Any ideas of what a good course name could be for this?
  5. He's actually pretty active socially, but it is possible. As I mentioned, she's not sick now. They are quite busy helping others in the community, at church, and with extracurricular stuff as well as work for him, though it is possible he feels lonely when actually homeschooling I guess. Regarding the GED, I think if he does really drop out (which isn't the case yet), that would be a good thing if and when he is ready for it. As it is, though, he's still a homeschooler but one at risk of dropping out. My ideal would be to help my friend with suggestions for making homeschooling easy, straight-forward, and doable for a young man with little academic motivation. Thanks especially for the info about military and GED. Hunter's Moon, that is exactly the question. He's not thinking about the future and doesn't get what it will cost him not to finish high school. His mom is at her wit's ends trying to get him to do his work. Thanks to everyone for these great insights.
  6. JanetC, I think you have a good point about the problem of an independent currlculum. FWIW, I think they have been to a family counselor who really did more harm than good, sad to say. To his credit as I mentioned before, he is a very hard worker when it comes to anything outside of school. I think we on this forum tend to be used to kids who are pretty self-motivated, but not everyone is like that. He just doesn't seem able to make the connection between success in his "book work" and success in life. He is in a volunteer organization with my kids and does fine. He does woodworking and yard work very happily. He cooks well. He's a really nice kid whose company I enjoy, but he is sneaky when it comes to avoiding what he doesn't want to do, which is his homeschooling. Above all I want to be able to go to my friend with some solid suggestions for ways to help him through this. I'm worried that he'll just fall between the cracks and never finish high school. He's working part-time now, which is probably a good thing in a lot of ways, but I worry that he'll just sort of stop his education altogether and regret it in years to come. I don't honestly think dual enrollment is a good fit for him right now unless it was in a subject of great interest to him. I'm not sure about an independent study course as he might just pretend to do it and get nothing done.
  7. A friend posted this article on Facebook: http://fillingmymap.com/2015/04/15/11-ways-finlands-education-system-shows-us-that-less-is-more/ It's the story of an American Fullbright scholar who worked in a school in Finland. All the way through this article and several others on her blog, I kept thinking how very much like homeschooling the things she mentioned were, most especially the fact that they have the same teacher all through elementary school who knew each child very well.
  8. Wow! How awful. You have to wonder how high the pressure was for these kids to succeed in college that they were willing to go to such extreme and insane lengths to hide the fact that they couldn't or wouldn't graduate from their parents.
  9. Regentrude, I am not familiar with them either but will look into it or tell my friend about the American School. Tibbie Dunbar, I tend to agree, and she did look into a charter school for him last year, but they had a waiting list and he didn't get in. I agree with a lot of what you said (of course it's not my call), especially about having a good relationship between mother and son for the next 50 years. Regarding a GED, this young man would likely grow up and excel in the military, but it's my understanding that they no longer accept people with a GED. Does anyone know if that's correct? It would be unfortunate for him to miss that possible path by virtue of going the GED route. Otherwise, that might be the best option. Regarding missing diagnoses, he actually does have some diagnosed learning disabilities from years gone by, and his mom is very tuned in to helping him through those. Any specific suggestions for curriculum that would be in line with this idea? I was thinking of Joy of Science as a science curriculum and Mathematics: A Human Endeavor for math (though he's doing TT now). My heart just goes out to my friend and her family. She has another daughter who is doing just fine with her homeschooling in spite of everything.
  10. I have a dear friend whose son is now 16. She has been seriously ill but still trying to homeschool for the past couple years. Her son is really not at all interested in becoming an educated human being and fights her every step of the way, using every method at his disposal to get away with doing as little as possible, which is affecting their relationship to put it mildly. He is, however, a talented chef and a hard worker. He just does not like book work. I want to go to her with a suggestion to make it possible for him to get through high school in a way that is legitimate but is as easy and simple as possible. He is not likely to go to college unless maybe community college for a trade. He just needs a way through, and at this point if he were to go to a regular high school, he would probably have to start back as a freshman and would be so likely to drop out before finishing. A big part of the problem is math. He has some learning disabilities but has actually gotten farther than anyone ever thought he would. Nonetheless, I believe he is doing prealgebra at this point. As for English, he probably has enough for 1 solid freshman credit. He was doing Rosetta Stone Spanish, but I think that might have fallen by the wayside. We're in a state that has minimal requirements, so that's not really an issue. Ultimately I have two questions: 1. If you were trying to help this young man get through high school and help the mom not have a nervous breakdown, what would you recommend as a curriculum/course of studies to (hopefully) make it possible for him to do pretty much all of high school in the coming two years since very little happened due to his mom's illness during the last two? 2. Are you aware of any resources or websites that I could point out that might help her? Thanks a bunch!
  11. Well, unfortunately it really didn't work out for him at all. It was way over his head and, despite the name, very theoretical. I think it would be a great text for a college engineering student. We ended up getting a different book after realizing it was not going to work for him. This is the book we switched to: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596153740/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687622&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0071771336&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JR3W538H47JPCRYGZ1B Even that, though, was not as fascinating as he had thought it would be. It was okay, and he got through it. When he started it, he had planned to do the followup book as well but decided not to. I am counting it as a 1-semester elective, by the way, and not as a science.
  12. JanetC, he loved the LOF prealgebra and both algebra books, but he did not do well with the Geometry book, and I suspect the same will be true for Trig. I'll check out your listing, Myra.
  13. My son is using their college physics course. Overall he's pretty satisfied, but occasionally the tests and quizzes seem to have errors according to him, and in the case of this particular child of mine, he's probably right.
  14. My 15-year-old was really enjoying the Life of Fred sequence through Advanced Algebra, but he was struggling mightily with the Fred Geometry book at the end of his 9th grade year, so this year we switched to Teaching Textbooks for Geometry. It has its problems, but overall it's fine. However, now I'm in a bit of a quandary regarding what to do for next year. Any suggestions regarding LOF Trigonometry versus Teaching Textbooks Pre-calculus versus another pre-calculus program? This son would do better with something that teaches directly rather than the LOF/AoPS approach, and it really needs to be something he can do on his own with occasional help from his math-professor grandma or mathy older brother who will be off at college. Also, having the same program for him for pre-calculus and calculus would be handy, though it is by no means necessary.
  15. Jenny, you make an interesting point about the purity of the author's message, but let me put forth an analogy. Suppose you go to an art museum specifically to see the work of a particular artist and this artist is the only one in the world who paints in this particular style. You want your teenagers to see and understand his unique style of art, yet your only opportunity to do so means looking at an amazing work of art that contains little miniature images of child pornography on one end. The artist included it not to glorify child porn but to show how wrong it is. Nonetheless, you deem it too raw and horrid for your teens to view. Do you harm the artist by deciding to suggest to your teenagers that they learn from the entire work of art but avoid looking at the one end with the child pornography? It may be that your teens fail to grasp some small portion of the point that the artist is trying to make, but I would suggest that the cost-to-benefit ratio is in favor of steering the teen away from the child pornography yet letting them experience what this artist has to say overall. Now, nothing that John Griffin writes is in any sense the equivalent of child pornography, but it is pretty raw in places. It's raw with a purpose, but I am making a choice as a parent to have my teenage sons read the work as a whole in order that they can better understand the ugliness of racism, but I am also choosing to leave out one disturbing scene as well as the use of the Lord's name in vain because, while it is so very common in our society, that doesn't make it any less wrong. I had no idea this thread would stir up so much discussion!
  16. Thank you MerryAtHope! Perhaps I didn't express my concerns well enough, but I feel like you are the first to really get what I meant. Thanks to everyone for your insights and ideas.
  17. Creekland, I completely agree. Lori D., thanks for finding this. Who knew that there was another person who had done the same? I wonder if Griffin knew about it. It would be very interesting to compare the two and see what difference if any 10 years made. I'm definitely going to read this second one. Maybe we'll do both!
  18. Minniewannabe, why that book? I think it is uniquely worthwhile as a book that explains racism and the need for the Civil Rights Movement in a way that nothing else I have come across does. A Caucasian person generally would be unable to experience the suffering that an African American experienced before Civil Rights, and an African American would not have experienced the lack of suffering that makes that suffering all the more poignant in the south in the 50s and 60s, but the author, a Caucasian who for all intents and purposes became African American in order to experience what they experienced can and did describe the experience in a way that no one else could have done. It is an excellent example of the subjectivism of St. John Paul and Maritain (whom Griffin refers to frequently). That's why that book and not a substitute for it. As for me and disturbing ideas, yes, it was disturbing in the sense that it should have been but not in terms of intrusive thoughts, and I do know what you mean by that. However, I read it as an adult just a few years ago, and I will admit that I am generally far less innocent than my children, having had a much more typical American upbringing. I definitely want my teens to read this--it's still just a question of whether to go through the book and white out the Lord's name in vain and still possibly ask them not to read that one section discussed above. Who knew this thread would become so active and varied? :-)
  19. Creekland, I totally agree that at some point their values must become their own and not merely an unpondered version of their parents'. However, in response to everyone who said that they have to learn to handle this stuff at some point, I'm not convinced that the best way to learn to handle difficult or disturbing ideas is by a steady diet of the same. Like most things, I think there is a point of prudential moderation for many things and total avoidance for a few. I don't think anyone above would say the best way to learn to handle the problem of pornography is to expose our teens to porn. Quite the contrary, the best way is for them to know that it exists so that they are ready to shut it off should they come on it inadvertently or leave the room should it be on the computer in their neighbor's dorm room. To do otherwise is to objectify women and men and to take something beautiful and turn it into something so very much not in keeping with human dignity. Back to the case at hand, there are times when exposure to the disturbing ideas is important and even necessary (racism, the holocaust, abortion for example) so as to understand the plight of another and to help avoid the same or other horrors in the future. So where is that point of prudential moderation in a case like this? You may all be right--it may be worth it in this case to let them encounter the whole horrible tale of what it was like to be an African American before Civil Rights. The question remains, though, as to whether the use of the Lord's Name in vain adds to their understanding in any way. I'm still pondering the question, but I definitely appreciate your insights as well as the necessity to clarify my own thoughts and ideas here. I love this board because we can really discuss things freely here.
  20. Unfortunately no, and I have looked elsewhere to no avail. Thanks very much for looking for me, though, Lori.
  21. Thank you for the link, Lori D. Unfortunately, I can't seem to pull the actual article up. Are you able to?
  22. Very interesting, Katilac. I will definitely give this some more thought. Regarding the racial slurs, things like that simply don't come up among our family or friends. Some people have lighter skin and some people have darker skin, but who cares? We are all made in the image of God and as such deserve to be treated with dignity. I would have to ask the older children to be sure, but I don't think my children think of people as groups or races--just individual people. These ideas that you state as common stereotypes would be completely foreign to my kids. That I think is a good example of what I mean when I say that by having a "full tank" of the good, the true, and the beautiful, it becomes much easier to recognize evil or injustice when one encounters it. If one grew up with racial slurs as a norm, it would be much harder to see that they are wrong. Does that make sense?
  23. Good point, OKBud. One other question: Are any of you familiar with an article that John Griffin published in a magazine, probably before writing the book? I found it at one point and am now unable to locate it again.
  24. I'm not concerned that they'll know what is there in terms of the Lord's name in vain but rather that they can avoid reading it. I really am not bothered by other profanity--just that. At this point, my teens are the ones who say we should turn off a certain movie for that reason when I'm the one saying I hope it will get better. As for the issue of sexuality in that one part of the book, I do understand that that exemplifies how unfeeling the people who picked him up were and their ignorance, but there's plenty of that in the book without that one bit. I am still thinking. I definitely want my 17-year-old and 15-year-old sons to read it and do so now while we're studying modern American history, and I am debating about the censorship part. I know I sound rather prudish here, but my real goal was to see if anyone knew of a PDF version that would make it easier to do.
  25. I will certainly give your point some thought, and I do understand the idea. What I"m wanting to censor is just two things: the repeated use of the Lord's name in vain in the worst possible way as well as the discussion when he was picked up by person after person in the dark wanting to know about "sexual differences" between the races. I really don't think either of those would help in their understanding of the book or be of use to the imaginations of teenagers. Yes, prepare them for the real world, but neither of those items is helpful in the real world. I do not plan to censor the racism in any way as that is the point of the whole book. Crrekland, regarding exposing them to the ugly parts of life before leaving home, I agree to some extent, but I also believe that when they are younger, keeping them free from some of that means that they will more readily recognize evil for what it is rather than viewing what is evil yet accepted in our society as normal. I would rather expose them to what is good, true, and beautiful to the greatest extent possible and only to what is evil so that they recognize it for what it is. Does that make sense?
×
×
  • Create New...