dcurry
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Posts posted by dcurry
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For dh:
I would respond
"That was really clever, the way you pointed out that the sentence could be understood two different ways. You have such a command of the English language."
I would respond the exact same phrase, in the same way, EACH and EVERY TIME he did it. Just to illustrate how often it is occurring. Sometimes, adults don't realize that they have a habit, and unless someone makes them aware, they won't learn.
:iagree: This'll do it. I bet they quit within a week.
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Can anyone post some links on how to do a good lab report? And/or a site with examples? We are doing Apologia General Science right now, and this is our first experience with lab reports. I want to make sure he is doing a really good job at it.
Donna Young has some lab reports on her website that match up with Apologia, and she has links to examples of completed ones for the General science. Here is the link to the lab reports:
http://donnayoung.org/science/labsheets.htm
Let me know if you can't find it, and I'll see if I posted that right.
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This is from the "do you eat dinner with your children?" thread- I thought it would be helpful to see the answers in a poll form. Pick the one that best fits your family.
Poll following really soon.
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This ought to be an official poll- I'd love to see the numbers w/o reading through 10 pages.
I used to be shocked at the idea that families wouldn't eat together at the table every night... I remember as a high schooler this idea being "promoted", and I remember specifically thinking, "What do they do INSTEAD of eating together as a family?" I honestly couldn't think of any alternative.
But now.... sometimes I throw something together last minute and we eat in the living room with a movie, sometimes everyone eats when they are hungry, sometimes the table is piled and we CAN'T eat at the table together, sometimes dh is not home and it's too much effort to cook for kids only who wouldn't appreciate it (they are picky eaters), so we've gradually gotten away from eating dinner together. I'd love to get back to it, though. I really do think it's important as there really isn't another time that we are all together as a family.
Yes, we homeschool, but with many different ages, everyone is doing their own thing or I am working with the younger kids. It's rare to have all of us sit down together and just visit with each other. When my oldest started bringing a book or wearing headphones to the dinner table, I started realizing that we really need to get back into the habit of actually sitting & talking together.
Now, when I set the table, my kids say, "Why are we eating at the table tonight?" or "Who's coming over?"
:sad:
And we're only gone about 2x/week during dinner hour.
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There's nothing wrong with graduating at 18- especially if he has no interest and isn't self motivated, AND has no idea what he wants to do with his life. Let him enjoy high school, take an easier pace, and find his interests. Find something he can get involved with (a group of kids that have similar interests). My son was ahead, and I actually had him do an 8th/9th year after his 8th grade year because he just wasn't ready (emotionally & socially) to tackle high school. Our adviser told us that it's better to keep a kid back and then if they are ready to finish high school in 3 years, than to push them ahead and end up with 5 years of high school. So we kept him back.
He still has no idea of what he wants to do, and isn't self-motivated. He took only about half a years worth of credits this year, and is trying to figure out what he wants. We're also working on his being more self-directed. He is my oldest as well, but I'm thinking an extra year at home certainly won't hurt him. While he is very capable, I don't think he'd do well in college if he can't do his assignments at home w/o dragging his feet.
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When I pictured a large stoplight in the front window, I did think that sounded a little... not rude but abrupt? But a small sign by the doorbell that says "school in progress, no interruptions please" would not be rude IMO.
:iagree:
I wouldn't use a chalkboard or whiteboard... it would be awfully tempting for young children to change the message for you. :)
Even a stoplight by the doorbell that you could have your kids tell their friends about seems acceptable to me. (Green- I can play, Red- I can't play right now).
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I had one who was 4 1/2 before he was potty trained at ALL. He had some sensory issues, and we went to therapy. They suggested giving him "deep pressure" at home several times a day for only 2 minutes at a time. This required me firmly squeezing (not so it hurt or bruised him, but firm pressure) the limbs starting at the tips (tips of fingers) all the way up to the shoulder, and then each foot starting with the toes and going all the way up to the thighs. Each limb had to take 30 seconds, so I tried to move slowly and make sure he was feeling the pressure. I'm not sure how it helped, but I (at the time) had 3 in diapers and NEEDED him trained, and was desperate to try anything. So at each diaper change (or you could do this at each accident during the day), I took 2 minutes out to do this even if we were in a hurry or late to go somewhere.
It seems it was only a month or two of consistently doing this with him that he was completely potty trained, day and night, and has not had an accident since. (This was amazing to me, since my daughter was 8 and still had accidents at night, and my other kids still had accidents occasionally during the day if they were busy or didn't make it in time- but this one child honestly has not had an accident since). I don't even make him use the bathroom before a long car ride. I don't mention the bathroom to him at ALL now. (He is now almost 10).
Just thought I'd share what helped with us. I hope you figure it out. Though it doesn't seem to me to be all that common to be "accident-free" at 4.
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My personal favourite is Gelfand's Algebra, though. My least favourite is TT.
Karin- can you please tell me why you didn't like TT? I've never heard of Gelfand's... what do you like about it, and what kinds of kids is it geared towards? Thanks!
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Rule No. 1. If a bee goes down your gumboot while you are working in the hive. DO NOT RUN the bees will follow you.
Rule no.2. DO NOT think that 50 meters is far enough to take your boot off. There is only one bee in your boot stinging, there is a gazillion angry bees buzzing around.
Rule no.3 DON"T start squishing bees that are all over your foot ( because boot is off), squished bees reliease a pharomone that makes all bees chasing you very mad.
I wish I had obeyed these rules. ds 17 asked me why did I take off my gumboot when the bees were chasing me. I told him it is some primitive instinct that kicks in automatically and overrides all reason.:glare:
Did you know that if you get enough bee stings in your foot, you actually don't feel any pain. It is just completely numb, and I am surprised how much a foot can swell.
When I first read this, I thought you were listing rules for *this* hive. :) It seemed an appropriate analogy.
Sorry about your foot, though.
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This year I wanted to keep all my kids doing the same subjects and catch up on some science that we'd never gotten to. This year I've had 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders. I bought RS4K and did Chem and Bio. For my fifth grader I got Level 1 and for my 3rd and 1st grader I got Pre-Level 1. The same topics were covered in both levels at the same time and the labs were similar. I've found it pretty easy to do both levels at the same time.
I will say that although chemistry was great, I've been less happy with biology. It seems super basic at times, but then very complicated and detailed at others and there is no human anatomy component.
I've never heard of chemistry for the younger ages- what is RS4K? I have a soon-to-be 5th grade student who is *dying* to take chemistry, and I told him he has to wait until high school.
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I continue to be amazed. It seems 50% of the people who voted use something I'd never heard of (though they are similar to each other). Now I have a whole new list of curriculum to look at. :001_unsure:
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Here is an example from Foerster’s Chapter 6 on the Quadratic Formula:
In Foerster's Chapter 6 they teach the quadratic formula. That's
x = [-b +- sqrt(b2-4ac)]/2a
(not easy to type here)
Within this chapter, they teach the vertical motion formula: d = rt - 5t(squared)
They have a section with 12 problems. The TM says to take 2 days to do these problems, but only do 3 problems a day. Here is the first one:
Football problem - A football is kicked into the air with an initial upward velocity of 25 meters per second (m/sec).
a. Calculate it's height after 2 seconds; 3 seconds
b. When will it be 20 meters above the ground?
c. Copy the diagram. Show the answers to part (a) in relationship to the 20 meters of part (b).
d. When will the ball hit the ground?
Wow. That example just about scared me away from Foersters completely! (But I am NOT a math person). I will look at it, though, because I've never heard of it and because of all these great reviews! Thank you Sue for the time you put into that review.
Thank you everyone else, too- these responses were really helpful to me. I didn't realize there were so many good choices. Many of these I'd never heard of, like: Lial, Kinetic Books, Holt, Mary Dolciani, Thinkwell, and AoPS.
I guess I have my summers work cut out for me.
A question about Foerster math- is this ONLY a high school curriculum? Or do they have elementary levels as well? I wonder that I've never heard of it at all. Thanks!
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I am really trying to find a good math program for high school for my student who does fine with math but really hates it. We used ABeka math through Algebra I, then decided to move to something else since we got stuck towards the end and I couldn't help him. We watched the Math-U-See video straight through (it took a week) for review and clarification on some concepts, and it helped- but wasn't what we were looking for.
I just wondered which math programs are most popular and why. My son looked them over recently (the more popular ones) and said that he really liked the writing style of Teaching Textbooks. (Just that was enough to make me want to buy it for him since he's usually so resistant to saying he likes anything about any math book). But I looked at the cost..... wow.
Anyway.. any input about math for high school? (Poll following with only the math curriculum I know about, alphabetically, so please don't be offended if yours isn't there).
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I haven't done that for my younger children, though I do try to choose things that interest them. But recently, for my older two children (8th/9th grades), I took them to a high school curriculum meeting in our area to see some options and to give me their input (knowing that we parents have the final decision). It was nice to see my oldest (who HATES math) look through the math curriculum and tell me that Teaching Textbooks Algebra II looked really interesting to him and he liked the writing style, and he thought he would learn well from it. This from a resistant kid who didn't even want to go in the first place. So, I'm going to do my best to try that for him next year.
As for my younger children- if they say, "Can you teach me cursive?" (regardless of the age), I will consider it, since I'd rather teach them something they *want* to learn rather than saying no and then making them take it later when they are no longer interested.
If it's feasible to teach your daughter the curriculum she is drawn towards, and you aren't against it, I'd probably try to find a way to make it work.
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Our kids take the SAT-10 through an ISP. We had 3 days of testing for grades 4-8 (younger grades aren't required or offered through them), and 2 days of testing for high school.
Grades 4-8 started at 9am and went until around noon each day.
Day 1: Language (50), Reading comprehension (50), and Reading Vocabulary (30?)
Day 2: Math problem solving (50), Math procedures (50), and spelling (35) (but they finished MUCH quicker for spelling).
Day 3: Listening (35), Science (30), Social Science (30)
The test is untimed. The times were approximate, and since they were tested in a group, when the time was up most of them went on break. If someone was almost done, they could stay and finish, or they could stay afterwards. Most of them finished in the allotted time frame (or earlier).
I believe the cost was only $30 per child (including the test & proctoring), but it was more if you weren't part of the ISP and just wanted to be included in the testing. Maybe $50/child. I don't remember. The third day was much shorter (finished by 11:30am). They had a break between each test of 15-20 minutes. And the first day was longer because they had to fill in all of the information bubbles.
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Yes to the peanut butter... that would have been almost first on my list. The huge tubs. :) I think it's a great idea to get input before you shop.
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which of these items would you be most grateful to find available there?
Curves is having a food drive and as a result asked us this question. It really made me think about what I would be donating. I intend to go shopping just for my donation so I thought I would put this poll up here too.
Canned meats
Healthy cereals
Canned fruit
Fresh bread
Pasta (with sauce)
Yes to the above,
plus powdered or canned milk, rice milk (for allergy kids), potatoes & onions, condiments (like ketchup & mayo).
I've been there, and it's quite humbling.
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Here is the plan for our family...
We buy an extra cell phone and it becomes the "house" phone. The children may borrow it AS NEEDED and AS DETERMINED by the parents. Since it is our phone we retain the right to do whatever we want with the phone. We can look at previous calls, text messages, and any other features that are on the phone (which would probably be limited).
When our children get their OWN full-time job, they can decide for themselves if they wish to purchase their own cell phone and plan.
:iagree:
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You might look at Total Health--Choices for a Winning Lifestyle, by Susan Boe. I had heard good things about it on this board, and so this year my dd has been reading it as part of her "Health & Fitness" course. She really likes it. I got my copy from Hewitt, but it's probably available from multiple homeschool sources, like Rainbow Resource, etc.
:iagree:
But as mentioned in other posts, it does have a lot of Christian content. If that's what you want, then it's highly recommended. I just ordered mine from paperbackswap.com (there's a huge wait for it- I waited 6 months), and looked through the table of contents. I was surprised at how much Christian content there was- there are sections on personal responsibility, etc. including Bible time, etc. I wouldn't have put those in a health course, but I can see why they included it. There's physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health (from a Christian perspective) in this book. Since that is what I really wanted, I am happy with it.
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ABeka really does have a good, strong math program. It's weaknesses come in the area of conceptual understanding (and WAY too much busy work since it was made for a classroom). My kids were able to do well on the problems, but not understanding really basic concepts like place value. (I didn't really understand place value until I was working on my education minor in college, working in a learning-disabled classroom and explaining it to a child who was using manipulatives.... wow, what an eye opener! I could do the "formula" but didn't really understand it).
I finally switched to Singapore when my 4th grader had been doing averaging in ABeka for a week before he finally said, "What *IS* averaging, anyway?" He could do the formula (add the numbers, divide by the amount of numbers you added together to get the answer called an average), but is so visual that he didn't understand until I told him a story about him and his friends all having different numbers of MNMs, but all wanting the same number- so they put all the MNMs in the middle, and divided them evenly by the number of kids.
I just decided Singapore would be a better fit, but I'm having trouble using it since *I* learned traditional methods. I really want to make math a priority.
Maybe he could continue with ABeka "for fun" since he's so excited about it, and you could do Singapore too? Then you could see which you like better.
If *you* have a good conceptual understanding of math, it would be easy to teach that while learning ABeka, too. I just didn't have one myself.
Something I've learned in my years of homeschooling is that there is so much "good stuff" out there that it's absolutely impossible to do all of it. And much of it is personal preference for one reason or another. So- I think you're trying to choose between two "good" math programs (both with proven success-rates) and it will boil down to your own personal preference.
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One concern I have is that, if I place my 8yo in Core 3+4, then he'll be doing Core 5 when he's only 9. Also, for the remaining cores, he'll end up being one year below the suggested "used by" ages. I just don't want to slight him.
ETA: I didn't really think Core K would be an option for my 10yo. I just wondered what others thought about it. :)
Just because you do core 3+4 this year doesn't mean you HAVE to do core 5 next year. You could do something else for a year or two, or do another core besides 5. You could do core 5 and just not expect as much from your youngest, though I do think the material in core 5 was for a bit older student. Especially the read-alouds.
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Since you love history, I have no doubt that whatever amount of history you choose, your kids will love doing history with you. :-)
:iagree:
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I've never heard of Beautiful Feet (first year homeschooler here!) and I checked the website and I'm not really clear on how it works? It looks like you simply purchase a bundle of books? Is there more to it than that?
Thanks!
Well... there's more to the curriculum than just purchasing, you actually have to do it when the books arrive. :)
It was many years ago that we used that particular curriculum, but I do remember that out of all these years it was one of my favorites (possibly my very favorite). There was a teacher guide that said what to do each day, which I adjusted for each child. My 3rd grader did it all on his own, while my 1st grader I didn't expect as much writing from (or I did some of her writing for her). I don't think you *have* to purchase all the books, but they are hard to find in the library and it makes things easier if you have them. (They are books you may want on your shelf for future years as well). These particular books gave permission to copy from, and every other picture in the book was black & white. Those were copied, and then during the readings they would color those pictures with colored pencils and paste them in a composition book. We have their composition books still with all of their work for the entire year. I love looking back and seeing what they accomplished that year.
I'm not sure how you feel about it, but they are from a Christian World-view and there are Bible verses used for copy-work sometimes (that relate to the character of the person you are learning about. It's not something you would want if you don't believe in God. (I think I only mentioned this curriculum because I saw another post of yours that gave me the impression you were Christian).
My point, though, was not to "sell the curriculum" but to explain that many history curriculum also include writing, reading & literature, and other subjects and that's why they seem so involved.
If you want to use SOTW, I know many people who just have their kids listen to the auditory lesson each day at the young ages and that's all. You'll have to decide what you want and what works for your family.
Advice--can do math in head, but on paper, it's wrong
in The Learning Challenges Board
Posted
If she knows the answers by looking at it, but is required to show her work, have her write down the answer first. Then after she works the problem, if the answer doesn't match her original, have her re-do the steps until she sees where she went wrong.